For the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, 2007 was a year filled with achievements that continue to elevate the medical school toward the nations highest ranks. From groundbreaking research to excellence in clinical care, the Miller Schools impact extends throughout South Florida and beyond.
In the field of research, Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics, led a multi-center team of researchers who uncovered a gene linked to multiple sclerosis. The discovery was the first of its kind in more than 30 years and could pave the way for future research and treatment options for the disease. UM scientists collaborated with researchers from Vanderbilt University, Duke University, the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Cambridge. During 2007 a number of the Miller Schools centers marked noteworthy milestones and received high accolades. The UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center reached its 15th anniversary as South Floridas only university-based cancer center. The celebration was bittersweet as Harcourt Sylvester, Jr., whose generous donation founded UM/Sylvester, died in August. His legacy and vision continue to drive the cancer center toward excellence in care and research. UMs Bascom Palmer Eye Institute did not settle for anything but the best. For the fourth year in a row, the Institute was ranked the Number One hospital in the country for ophthalmology by U.S. News & World Report in its annual Best Hospitals survey. Bascom Palmer physicians have made great strides in their use of drugs to prevent wet age-related macular degeneration , among other ophthalmic treatments. Three other UM specialties were also ranked among the best: ear, nose and throat at No. 17, reaching the top 20 in only five years since being ranked No. 36 in 2002; digestive disorders and kidney disease both at No. 32. Linking up with Humana, the University and the health insurer launched a groundbreaking Pharmacovigilance Initiative. The new program will focus on prescription drug safety in particular, the science of detecting and understanding adverse drug events. Using Humanas 11 million-member database the researchers will be able to track in a timely manner how patients use certain medications and document emerging patterns of adverse impacts. UMs presence in Palm Beach County continued to grow during 2007. In August 32 medical students began their four years of education at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Up until now, students only attended the first two years of medical school on the Boca campus and completed their final two years in Miami. But the class of 2011 will spend all four years on the Boca Raton campus while doing their clinical rotations at Boca Raton Community Hospital and other nearby hospitals. Just a couple of months later, UM announced the approval of the first allopathic residency program in Palm Beach County. The internal medicine residency program begins in July 2008 at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis and the VA Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Perhaps one of the biggest announcements to come from the University of Miami was made in late October. The Universitys Executive Committee and full Board of Trustees voted to give UM senior officers the authority to buy Cedars Medical Center. The purchase of the 560-bed hospital was called “an exciting milestone in the Universitys quest to bring academic medicine to as many patients as possible” by Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Miller School. The sale is expected to be finalized in early December. UM physicians and trainees have conducted work at the hospital for many years. Dr. Goldschmidt called the purchase a logical evolution of the relationship between the two, “creating a university hospital environment to serve the people of South Florida and beyond.” At the same time, UM Miller School faculty physicians will continue to serve as the medical staff of Jackson Memorial Hospital. Plans are currently in the works with Jackson leadership to develop a number of new strategic clinical programs and enhance already existing services, such as trauma, transplant and neonatal intensive care.