Western Michigan University School of Medicine

Region: Michigan Country: USA

Mission
The mission of Western Michigan University School of Medicine (WMed) is to advance the health of humanity through excellence in medical education, clinical care, research, and service. These pursuits are interdependent and together assure optimal care for today and hope for tomorrow.

Our Goals for the First Decade
We will be the catalyst to create a regional Health Sciences Center in southwest Michigan. This relationship between WMed, Borgess Health and Bronson Healthcare will be a partnership that respects the autonomy of each member and creates an overall synergy for education, clinical care, and research. The Health Sciences Center will be the vehicle for southwest Michigan to maximize synergies between our biomedical and educational assets, and it will make our community more than it is today.

We will recruit the best students in the United States without regard to geographic boundaries. Our students will reflect the diversity of the patients we serve.

We will implement a patient-centered curriculum of core instruction in the biomedical sciences and clinical medicine that incorporates themes of professionalism, critical thinking, team-based medicine, healthcare quality, personalized medicine, and lifelong learning. We will always be diligent to look beyond the horizon to assure that we educate our students for the future of medicine.

We will engage our students in scholarly activities to experience the excitement of research and discovery.

We will lead medical education within our community and collaborate with our partners to provide and develop graduate medical education programs and continuing medical education activities.

We will provide academic leadership to assure that southwest Michigan is always positioned to participate in the future of medicine, wherever the science and technology leads.

We will be a stimulus for economic growth of the region and be a partner to those businesses that carry on our heritage of innovation in the life sciences.

Vision
The School of Medicine is distinguished as learner centered, discovery driven, globally engaged, and patient and family focused.

Strategic Goals

Program Excellence
Community Collaboration
An Academic Culture
Economic Sustainability
Faculty Development

Values
Compassionate Service
Effectively meeting the health needs of our patients and participating in a community-wide effort to meet the health needs of the community.

Commitment to Excellence
Pursuing the highest level of performance through evidence-informed medical practice quality standards.

Diversity
Understanding, respecting and accepting our culture and the culture of others.

Leadership
Inspiring each other through a commitment to accountability, courage, open communication and trust.

Lifelong Learning
Promoting continued personal and professional development for all.

Teamwork
Attaining the organization's goals by working effectively together.

History - Western Michigan University School of Medicine
With a commitment of collaboration from Western Michigan University, Borgess Medical Center and Bronson Methodist Hospital, the WMU School of Medicine moved from merely an idea to a planned approach for development. In November 2009, an anonymous donation of $1.8 million was made to support efforts to plan for the new medical school. A committee comprised of the chief executive officers of Borgess Medical Center, Bronson Methodist Hospital, and the president ofWestern Michigan University began to meet regularly to guide the development process. In 2010, WMed was awarded Applicant Status by the LCME, a search committee was developed to recruit the School's Founding Dean, and Jack Luderer, MD was named interim dean.

A Steering and Visioning Committee, later renamed the Institutional Setting Committee, included a broader group of the senior leadership of the three organizations. Following a national search with multiple on-site interviews of the candidates, Hal B. Jensen, MD, MBA was named as the founding dean of the Western Michigan University School of Medicine in January 2011.

March 22, 2011 marked a historic moment for both the founding dean and the medical school. Not only was it the first day on the job for the new founding dean but also it was the day that a $100 million cash gift to WMU was announced to serve as the foundation funding for WMed. This anonymous gift was the largest ever made to a Michigan college or university, among the 10th largest cash gifts ever made to an American public university, and the 15th largest cash gift in the history of American higher education. The gift proceeds remain invested in a dedicated reserve and both the investment return and principal is available for the unrestricted use of WMed.

December 8, 2011 marked another major milestone in the history of WMed and illustrates the spirit of giving that is prevalent in Kalamazoo. At the WMU Board of Trustees meeting that day, William U. Parfet, the chairman and chief executive officer of MPI Research and the great-grandson of W. E. Upjohn, donated to WMU a 330,000 square foot building located in downtown Kalamazoo that will serve as the future home of WMed. This property, which is on the original plot of land acquired by W. E. Upjohn to begin the Upjohn Co., housed at the very research facility where Motrin, Xanax, Halcion, Rogaine, and Zyvox were discovered.

Locally known asPfizer Building 267, the property is adjacent to Bronson and only three miles from Borgess, two miles from WMU, and the WMed Oakland Drive campus. On October 12, 2012, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site of the new medical school building on the W. E. Upjohn Campus, which will be ready for occupancy by early May 2014, three months prior to the arrival of WMed's first medical school class in August 2014. During the groundbreaking ceremony, Dean Jenson announced that WMed was granted preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, an important step, as WMed now moves forward to recruit its first class of medical stduents.