We sit amidst a rich ecosystem of powerhouse institutions focused on advancing knowledge and improving humanity.
As Maryland’s largest public medical school, we have an obligation to partner, to collaborate, and to facilitate. We will move in new directions, and we will pull others along with us. We seek scientific breakthroughs and aim to multiply the breakthroughs of our peers. We embrace the dizzying pace of biomedical discoveries.
Today, more than ever, our innovative skills are needed to solve the complex individual and global health diseases and health disparities faced by millions across the nation. We are also needed to tackle the generational health challenges of our time: obesity and metabolic syndrome, an aging population, emerging pathogens and climate medicine, mental health and addiction, health inequity and disparities, brain diseases and neurodegeneration, and big data computation.
We see what lies ahead if nothing changes. We recognize our good fortune to practice our science and healing at this moment in time. A time when transformations in artificial intelligence and big data allow us to make therapeutic quantum leaps forward.
This is a destiny we cannot waste nor ignore.
We are a diverse community of nearly 16,000 thousand faculty, students, trainees, staff, alumni, and volunteers all dedicated to our vision and mission.
We are the epidemiologists who uncovered stealth pathogens in long-term care facilities; the psychiatrists who linked inflammation to autism and schizophrenia risk factors; and the global health experts who showed just a single dose of a vaccine can prevent typhoid in Malawi’s most vulnerable children.
We are the medical educators who teach rehabilitation engineering; the community scientists who lead the national conversation about social determinants of health; and the physicians who encourage other physicians to improve their probabilistic skills to ensure AI clinical algorithms get it right.
Our future success, as envisioned in this strategic plan, relies on you, our faculty and staff members, our students and trainees, and our leadership teams.
We asked for your input and ideas. You responded with overwhelming enthusiasm to be heard during grassroots brainstorming sessions, and to volunteer for meetings and working groups. You delivered insightful observations, suggestions, and critiques to make the School of Medicine a stronger institution.
In the following pages, the plan identifies key priorities; forges a path forward for our missions of Education, Research, Clinical Care, and Community; and compels us to remain focused. It is built upon your collaborative efforts and reflects your aspirations for our School.
Thank you all.
With enthusiasm and commitment,
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean