P&S Annual Report
Dean's Letter

Dear Colleagues and Friends, 

Not long after the College of Physicians and Surgeons was founded in 1767, the American Colonies were propelled into the turbulence of the American Revolution. Today, P&S and all medical schools face another kind of revolutionary turbulence, this time in the health care system. 

Many Americans enjoy the benefits of the world's finest integrated system of medical care, research, and education. Our hope is that all citizens could similarly enjoy these benefits. Still, this quality system is threatened by the drive toward managed care and the persistent pressures to reduce government budgets. American academic medicine has created such a high and enduring standard of medical excellence that some people take the quality of their health care for granted. Increasingly we see the risks in complacency. Fear is growing that managed care will reduce access to the best medical treatments for broad sections of our society and will drain away the investment in academic medicine. The advancement of medical science and the development of new clinical treatments are threatened by possible reductions in federal support for biomedical research. Like the Colonists of the 1770s, we must have the strength to meet the revolutionary challenges we face. 

Fortunately, we are strong. During this past year the combined effort of the academic medical centers fought off a threatened 10 percent reduction in federal funding for biomedical research and turned it into a 6.9 percent increase. With our hospital partners we managed to mitigate many of the worst prospective cuts in Medicaid support at the state level. 

P&S is particularly well-positioned and prepared to meet these new challenges. In 1996, we completed the first medical accreditation survey since 1989. To appreciate how far we have come since the last accreditation report, we must look at where we were then. In 1989, we were spending excess income from our endowment just to pay our bills. Our physical plant was not only too small, it was seriously deteriorating and in need of investment. For a variety of reasons, we did not have the resources necessary to address these needs. If P&S were a human body, we would have been diagnosed as seriously ailing--and ill-equipped to recover. 

Today, P&S is robust and thriving. We have successfully addressed our major problems: We have reconstructed and stabilized our revenue streams; we have rebuilt, refurbished, and expanded our physical plant; we have recruited new medical and scientific leaders in almost every field (15 new chairs, four new center directors); we have revamped and expanded our scientific programs and educational curriculum; we have attracted the brightest and most capable students ever to attend P&S; we have created new clinical practice sites for our faculty physicians. 

The measures of this transformation of P&S are shown throughout this annual report for 1995-96. Today, our leadership role in medical research is indisputable. We have risen to fourth among American academic medical centers in total federal research support. We were the second largest recipient among 30 medical schools that shared $80 million in grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Our clinical faculty are consistently listed among the best in New York and the nation according to national surveys. The medical school ranks in the top 10 of America's best medical schools. We are attracting the largest number ever of applicants for medical school. Our endowment has grown to $550 million. We have built or refurbished nearly 1.2 million square feet of space, including the construction of our Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, the first such research park in New York City. We have instituted one of the most successful programs of clinical trials in the country, and Columbia's earnings from scientific patents and licenses--based mostly on P&S research--rank No. 2 nationally. 

We are well-positioned to meet the challenges we face. We have reached this point because of the P&S people who have dedicated themselves to strengthening this remarkable, historic institution. I invite you, as friends, faculty, alumni, students, and colleagues of P&S, to read about these achievements on the following pages. Because so much happens here, this annual report for 1995-96 is necessarily selective. 

During this period of unprecedented change in the health care environment, medical schools such as P&S that have creatively reorganized and rebuilt to face these turbulent times will be in the best position to thrive. Challenges still lie before us, but we are well-prepared to face them head on. And like the Colonists of young America, we will be on the winning side of this revolution. 

Herbert Pardes, M.D. 
Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean, Faculty of Medicine