When I accepted the opportunity more than a year ago to come to Philadelphia and lead the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Perelman School of Medicine, I knew, intellectually, that I was joining one of the greatest academic medical institutions in the world. I received an even more personal perspective on the excellence of this institution in the months ahead as hundreds of alumni wrote me. Young and old, geneticists and family physicians—they all expressed a deep gratitude for the education they received at Penn Medicine, and they wished me well in my new role.
The intellectual and the personal have merged with stunning clarity in my first months here as I have toured the labs, talked with faculty, and met students. I have found the depth and breadth of the research and clinical care to be most impressive and even more innovative than I had known from afar. I have also been impressed by the profound dedication to Penn exhibited by faculty, students, and staff. It is a privilege for me to lead this great institution, and I am excited about the work ahead to train the next generation of physician leaders, improve the lives of patients, and advance biomedical discovery.
During this initial year, I look forward to meeting and interacting with the alumni both formally and informally. I am eager to visit you in the cities and towns where you live and work. Your beloved alma mater has thrived for so long in large part because our alumni and friends have been very generous - in so many ways - to the School. We will continue to rely on your close partnership, and I welcome your thoughts and feedback.
All of our medical alumni can say with pride that they graduated from the first medical school in the country. However, this pride would ring hollow without our ongoing commitment to reinventing medicine, being at the forefront of medical education, and improving the health of all. We stand in a better position today than ever before with our innovative curriculum, dedication to translational medicine, and all of the resources that the university offers for interdisciplinary collaborations.
In the months ahead, the faculty, staff, and I will embark on a process to address the extraordinary opportunities and daunting challenges academic medicine faces. I look forward to hearing your viewpoint at one of our many alumni events, either on campus or around the country. In the meantime, I invite you to follow our new Making the Rounds blog. I value your interest, and I thank you for all that you do for the Perelman School of Medicine.
J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D |
