Last week, KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little delivered her annual State of the University address.  Dr. Gray-Little was able to list a number of KU’s outstanding accomplishments over the past year, including the recruitment of one of the most academically talented freshmen classes in school history; the continued ability to attract top-flight faculty; and the tremendous achievements in research. She also laid out a number of goals for KU in the coming years, including launching a program to provide assistance early to first-year students who are struggling, and developing a new system that will measure faculty activity, especially research engagement, across the university.

I was very pleased that a number of achievements related to KU Medical Center in the past year were included in Dr. Gray-Little’s address. Of course, the chancellor talked about the KU Cancer Center’s quest for NCI designation, which is a top priority of the university. She cited the more than $345 million that has been invested in this effort over the last five years by the state, university, KU Hospital, Kansas Bioscience Authority, Midwest Cancer Alliance, the Hall Foundation and other private donors. These investments have led to more than 50 new researcher and laboratory staff positions, and a 70 percent increase in National Cancer Institute funding.

Dr. Gray-Little also pointed proudly to the School of Medicine’s expansion of its Wichita program and the establishment of a medical education program in Salina, which will help address the critical workforce shortage of doctors in rural areas of our state. As evidence of this commitment, she cited the School of Medicine’s ranking among the top five “social mission” schools in the country for producing primary care physicians and physicians who practice in rural and underserved areas. 

And the Board of Regents' recent approval for KU to create a School of Public Health was mentioned in the address. This has been a major priority for the chancellor and myself, and excitement is already building around developing a school to train public health leaders who can develop innovative programs to promote health, prevent disease, manage chronic illness and control health care costs.

In her eloquent closing, Dr. Gray-Little said that KU is on a journey toward the horizon — a horizon that will herald the dawn of a new day for the university. I know that all of us at KU Medical Center are very proud that we are part of this amazing journey.

KUMC in the media

KU's progress toward NCI designation was the subject of a Lawrence Journal-World article last week. KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little was quoted, as was KU Cancer Center director Roy Jensen, MD, and Brad Kemp, with the Kansas Bioscience Authority. The entire article is available here.

The KHI News Service ran an in-depth piece on the efforts to improve the health of people living in Wyandotte County. A study by the Kansas Health Institute ranked Wyandotte last among the state’s 105 counties on health and socioeconomic factors. The article mentions the opening of KU's 72,000- square-feet Children’s Campus of Kansas City as one of the programs that could help improve the health and well-being of Wyandotte County residents. Read more here.

Jeffrey Burns, MD, director of the Alzheimer and Memory Program, was quoted in an article that made news all over the world this week. The article was about a new study that found the section of the brain involved with memory grew in size in older people who regularly took brisk walks for a year. Dr. Burns, who has conducted extensive research on the effects of aerobic exercise in Alzheimer's patients, was very enthusiastic about the study authored by researchers at the University of Pittsburg and the University of Illinois. You can read the article here.

KWCH-TV in Wichita aired a story last week that reported on the KU School of Medicine–Wichita's progress on the expansion of its medical education program to four years. The story quoted Wichita's dean, David Wilson, MD. The entire story is available here.

Julie Wei, MD, an associate professor of otolaryngology, was featured in a story on MSNBC.com about whether children who get their tonsils removed are more likely to gain weight. The article focused on a new study that found a greater-than-expected weight gain in normal and overweight children after a tonsillectomy. More here.