More than 100 faculty and staff participated as members of planning committees or as resources to the committees. Another 200 faculty, students, residents, and fellows participated in focus groups organized by the space and education planning committees. The final plan, accompanied by the dean’s response, was made available for public review on the Columbia Health Sciences web site, and meetings on the plan sought further input from students, faculty, staff, and administrators.

In crafting the plan and establishing goals, the dean and the committees agreed upon several overarching priorities:

To build on Columbia’s historic strengths To anticipate opportunities and future directions To build bridges between pre-clinical and clinical research To enhance activities that have broad impact throughout the Health Sciences  To attract and retain the best faculty, students, and staff To take advantage of resources available within the Health Sciences, the rest of Columbia University, and our affiliated hospitals

The plan sets a bold course. For research, it envisions a heightened focus on core research efforts that span individual research disciplines, such as genomics/proteomics, chemical biology, and bioinformatics/informatics. It suggests new centers and collaborative ventures to enhance the strength of Columbia’s traditional areas of research leadership, including neuroscience, biophysics and structural biology, and developmental biology. It also recommends a wide range of research areas that warrant renewed investment and heightened vigor, such as cancer, cardiology, cell biology, clinical research, geriatrics, health disparities, human genetics, immunology and inflammatory diseases, and infectious diseases.

Within the educational enterprise, the plan recommends investing in cutting-edge educational initiatives and tools that include simulators, robotics, and virtual settings; bridging the gap between medical education and postgraduate training; and establishing clear and tangible goals and rewards for teaching while heightening the visibility of the entire education mission. This last is perhaps most critical—as at many other institutions, medical educators at Columbia P&S wish to see their role more appropriately valued. The plan urges Columbia to look to other institutions that have adopted successful models integrating teaching with research and patient care in a system of tenure, promotion, and responsibility that adequately values the education mission and provides transparency for its funding.

To retain Columbia’s position of preeminence in academic medicine as a provider of the highest quality clinical care, the plan establishes five key values that will underscore all new priorities: the highest quality medicine, a culture of caring, the best people, an enabling organization, and a supportive infrastructure. The plan calls for an extensive program of outcomes measurement essential to achieving all...of these values. “If we are to practice the highest quality medicine we must be able to name it, do it, measure it, and teach it,” the plan states. To coordinate these efforts and to work with our affiliated hospitals to improve care, the plan calls for the hiring of a new dean for clinical affairs. Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum has been recruited to this position.

Underlying all of these goals is the ever-present challenge of space, and rising to the challenge is essential to achieving the goals. Where will new programs exist, and how will existing initiatives be brought together in new locations to enhance cooperative ventures? Whether it’s space for a new genetics laboratory, room for teaching, learning, and living, or facilities for new clinics and treatment centers, the need for more room to expand underscores every aspect of the strategic plan.

Recognizing that new and expanded space, along with building designs that link patients, clinicians, and students, will be key to Columbia’s future, the committees undertook an evaluation of existing space and a search for new, more flexible options for expansion. In close collaboration with New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus, and working with experts in every aspect of urban and medical center planning, the strategic planning committees created a framework to guide Columbia’s physical development of an immediate agenda and a long-range vision that will transform the campus over the next 20 to 25 years.

RThere is a danger in raising unrealistic expectations, but as we move ahead, we welcome the challenge of a bold plan,” said the dean in comments accompanying the strategic plan. We do not have the space, personnel, or dollars to do everything right away. But we must begin.”