On July 1, 2006, it was a privilege to become dean of the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University. The College's accomplishments of the 2005-2006 year, described in part in this annual report, demonstrate precisely why I feel so honored to lead such an extraordinary medical school.

Our plan for the College of Physicians & Surgeons is to create a supportive environment of the highest academic standards, to recruit the best students and faculty, and to retain the most talented people in their fields. The newest among us as well as the physicians, scientists, and educators who have long devoted their careers to P&S will thrive in such an environment. Columbia should be recognized as one of the very best academic medical centers in the world.

Our key challenge as we pursue this goal is to make what is good at Columbia even better, while investing in additional areas to achieve the breadth of the scientific, educational, and clinical mission required of the best academic medical centers. Some organizations can choose to divest from sectors in which they are not already leaders, but a great medical school needs depth across the entire range of specialties that are vital to human health. Given the multiple facets of our mission, only a limited number of medical schools in the world can aspire to greatness in all fields. Columbia must be one of them. Anything less would be to abandon the ideals to which P&S has aspired since its founding as the second medical school in the American Colonies.

This past year was a watershed for great scientific vision at Columbia, particularly in genomics and proteomics. In a year in which the National Institutes of Health awarded some $250 million for its new Roadmap research initiatives in genomics, proteomics, and related fields, Columbia received 20 percent of that funding - a testament to the extraordinary quality of the faculty here and to our commitment to the future of genetic medicine.

These new research efforts will play an important role as we address one of the biggest challenges shared by all leaders in academic medicine: to make the transition into "big science" and all that this transition entails, such as core facilities, advanced technology, and pre-eminence across the spectrum of disciplines. In today's world, scientists and physicians must work in institutions with 21st century facilities. The centers that successfully combine expertise and resources will be at the forefront of such fields as genomics and proteomics, computational biology, and developmental biology.

We also must reinforce our commitments to education and to clinical care. Our students are truly spectacular, and we must upgrade our educational facilities and revamp our curriculum if we are to continue to train tomorrow's leaders. Both of these initiatives have already begun under the guidance of our educational leaders.

Our new Faculty Practice Organization, formed shortly after my arrival, is dedicated to improving the systems in which our outstanding individual physicians practice. Our clinical programs are where we have our greatest impact on New York on a day-to-day basis. We take great pride in our broad clinical mission, including our partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. We provide outstanding primary medical care and the most sophisticated specialty care, and we provide this range of care to the most vulnerable New Yorkers, who often have no other option for medical care, as well as people who could choose to get their care anywhere in the world.

To achieve our lofty goals, we will rely on a combination of vision and sweat. The vision is making Columbia an exciting place to be - a place on the cutting edge of science, education, and clinical care. This vision can flourish best when the infrastructure enables results to flow from creativity and hard work. These are self-reinforcing goals. Simply put, great opportunity will attract the best to Columbia; a satisfying work environment will keep them here.

We must all work together to set priorities that will keep Columbia in its rightful position at the pinnacle of excellence, as indisputably one of the greatest medical schools in the world. I look forward to working with all of you to realize this vision.



Lee Goldman, M.D.

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