West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission A Primer on Health Sciences for Board Members Presented to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission

West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission

A Primer on Health Sciences for Board Members

Presented to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission

August 1, 2014


The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.

Albert Schweitzer


Background and Apologies

Brief overview of terms covered


“Because of the complexity of serving three separate but related purposes—education,

research, and patient care—and because of the growing number of internal and external

influences on governance, I have come to describe the process as a tiger by the tail.”

Academic Medicine


•Available Slots

•Number of qualified West Virginia applicants

•West Virginians accepted/enrolled

•Out of State accepted/enrolled

Key Policy Numbers


Key Policy Facts

•Retention is pretty good

•Recruitment from outside is poor

•Graduate Education is critical


It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

Mahatma Gandhi


Key Characteristics

•High Demand, Limited Supply

•Expensive

•Highly Regulated, often conflicting

•National accountability


There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and

costs of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kennedy


Different from Governing Other Institutions

•A World Unto Themselves…

•Not only education….

•Dual, sometimes opposing, missions…

•Provide West Virginians with a good medical education

•Provide West Virginia communities the professionals they need


Communities have problems and medical schools have departments... and that’s the problem.

Anonymous


Issues


Are The Needs Being Met?

•Institutional Needs

•Competence and Excellence

•Balance Reputation, Advancement, Effectiveness, Research, and Practice

•Regional and State Needs

•Workforce


Health Science Centers Revenue Sources

Graph and information from Academic Medicine


National Health Science Centers Annual Gains and Losses

Graph and information from Academic Medicine


Did you ever see the customers in health food stores? They are pale, skinny people who look

half-dead. In a steak house, you see robust, ruddy people. They’re dying, of course, but they look

terrific!Bill Cosby


Sustainability

•Infrastructure

•Excellence and Relevance

•External Oversight

•Income and Investment


“The fundamental question is whether virtue is to be considered a necessary or sufficient condition

for the practice of an ethical medicine.”

Academic Medicine


“The system is driven by virtue, not facts and skills, and it is high time that medical

education made concerted efforts to claim a higher moral ground by recognizing its obligation to train virtuous as well as

technically competent and knowledgeable practitioners.”

Academic Medicine


Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.

Mark Twain

Documents

West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission A Primer on Health Sciences for Board Members Presented to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission