The Kansas Board of Regents on Thursday endorsed KU’s proposal to create a School of Public Health at KU Medical Center. The new School will expand public health outreach in the state, will help train more public health providers and researchers, and will help advance the health and well-being of our citizens. It will also help us better compete for federal grant funding to support health care and public health education, service and research programs. Read reaction to the news from  Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Regents' Chair Gary Sherrer in this press release.

This latest news caps a very exciting year for KU Medical Center, and I want to thank every one of you for all your efforts in 2010, helping to make it one of the most successful years in our history. Among the highlights:

• In our drive at achieve NCI designation, the KU Cancer Center has recruited a number of internationally renowned cancer researchers to our campus, including Parvesh Kumar, MD; Kapil Bhalla, MD; Shrikant Anant, PhD; and Andrew Godwin, PhD.

• This summer, The KU Cancer Center helped, host the Friends of Cancer Research town hall meeting at the Kauffman Foundation. A white paper from that meeting was just published.

• The KU School of Medicine announced the expansion of our Wichita and Salina medical education programs. Next fall, we will add a four-year program in Salina and expand the School of Medicine–Wichita from a two-year clinical program to a full, four-year program. We are currently accepting 16 additional students to fill the new positions.

• For the first time in our history, annual funding for research at KUMC surpassed $100 million.

• Our already outstanding neuroscience program got a boost when our four current neurosurgeons were joined by five new eminent neurosurgeons, led by Paul Camarata, MD, the department’s interim chair.

• The School of Medicine was named one of the top five medical schools in the country when it comes to meeting our social mission – producing primary care physicians for underserved areas and attracting and training a diverse student body.

I hope you and your loved ones have a joyous and safe holiday season, and here’s looking forward to an exciting 2011 for KU Medical Center!

In the News

In less than four months, donors have contributed $2.7 million for the expansion of the KU School of Medicine-Wichita next fall. That is more than half of the $5 million fundraising goal. The announcement received much media coverage last week, including this story in the Lawrence Journal-World.

Gary Gronseth, MD, an associate professor of neurology, was quoted in an article in this week in Newsday about whether second brain death exams are a valuable or necessary procedure. Read the entire article here.

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson had an editorial in The Kansas City Star this week that praised the economic boost the biosciences industry is giving our state. He singled out the KU Cancer Center's quest for NCI designation in particular, saying the economic and health-related benefits are potentially enormous. You can read Gov. Parkinson's editorial here.

Nikki Nollen, PhD, an assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health, participated in a panel discussion taped at the Bluford Library in Kansas City, Mo., and recently broadcast on KCUR's KC Currents. Dr. Nollen joined moderators Susan Wilson and Sylvia Maria Gross, and guests Eugene Brown of the Kansas City Beans and Greens Program and Erika Devore of KC Health Kids to talk about nutrition and fitness. The broadcast is archived here.

President Obama signed a bill today for a one-year extension of current Medicare physician payment rates, averting a 25 percent cut that had been scheduled to take effect for physicians across the country on January 1.  While the measure is not a permanent correction to the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, which would have prompted the cut, Congress will now have all of 2011 to pursue a long-term solution. Details here.