So I suppose the first question is why is the director of an Institute for Advanced Study so interested in George Mason starting a medical school?
The short answer is that neuroscience (my own field) ultimately is tied closely to understanding the phenomenon of human mind, and the many brain diseases that affect it. Thus, the notion of translational neuroscience (that is bringing the fruits of brain research to the patient bed-side) is extremely important to me. Growing neuroscience writ large at Mason implies having the kind of educational and research opportunities that are inherent to the medical education environment.
At another level, I look at the empirical data and can’t help but notice that universities with medical schools operate at a research scale qualitatively larger than those without. This university (and the region) needs top-flight Mason research to grow. Medical education at Mason will act as a catalyst for such growth. Indeed, as I’ve mentioned before, biomedical research can be an economic engine for the region.
That said, there are many reasons for not “cloning” the existing medical school models. For one thing, there is an on-going revolution in medical education timed with the recent 100th anniversary of the famous Flexner Report. That revolution, loosely called “Flexner II“, is a wave we need to catch. So we need to be looking at extremely innovative models such as those at Case-Western/Cleveland Clinic and Mayo, rather than the legacy programs.
Another reason for being innovative in our approach is that it will differentiate us from existing medical programs, around the Commonwealth and the United States. Mason has tremendous strength at innovative approaches. We can leverage this asset.
Finally, the region (i.e. the National Capital Region) has specific medical needs that are different from other areas of the country. As a potential terrorist target, the Washington area, needs more critical care physicians in addition to doctors with an advanced understanding of infectious disease, and if we’re smart, we can tailor our nascent program to those needs. Such shaping of our program can leverage our existing National Center for Biodefense.
It used to be that institutions of higher education with medical schools also owned their hospitals. But with the massive changes in the business model for medical care, this often doesn’t make sense. So Mason’s medical program will need clinical partners. Such partners would gain greatly from the research prestige and success already present at Mason, in such areas as cancer biology, proteomics and of course neuroscience.
In the next blog entry, I’ll write about evidence-based medicine, nanotechnology, medical robotics and how they might change the medical student curriculum.
Jim
Discoverers and Discoveries 