Medical school strategic plan embraces a global perspective

The School of Medicine is on implementing its strategic plan, including expanding the reach of the Tufts University Science Knowledgebase (TUSK), creating curricular opportunities for students to gain a global perspective in medical practice and developing a health sciences campus master plan.

TUSK, widely regarded as the nation’s most advanced and comprehensive online educational database in the health sciences, is earning attention in this country and abroad. It has been exported to three U.S. medical schools—New York Medical College, Boston University and the University of Hawaii—and to Kenya and Tanzania. New York University and Makerere University in Uganda will launch TUSK later this year.

Twenty first-year medical students will travel overseas this summer to gain experience in public health, primary care and tropical medicine. Through the generosity of Judith and Stephen Wolfberg and funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Hickey-Peyton International Travel Fellowship, the students will receive grants to cover airfare and living expenses when they go to Panama and Mangalore, India. Student stipends are also available for travel to Uganda and Tanzania.

The school has forged an exchange agreement with Father Muller Medical College in Mangalore. The college’s main teaching hospital is a 1,050-bed, multi-specialty hospital with three-quarters of its beds set aside for indigent patients. Tufts medical students will have an opportunity to gain insight into a different health-care delivery system.

Back in Boston, preparing for the future needs of the health science campus and creating a campus identity are the goals of the campus master planning process. Anshen + Allen + Rothman, an architectural firm that specializes in health-care and academic facilities, has been chosen as the master planner consultant. A master planning committee is discussing strategic goals and a framework to enhance campus image and identity. A final report is expected by early fall. Dr. Lonnie H. Norris, dean of the School of Dental Medicine, and John Roberto, vice president of operations, are co-chairs of the planning committee.

To read more about plans that flesh out the medical school’s four disease-oriented research priorities, new initiatives that strengthen relationships with the Tufts teaching hospitals and other accomplishments related to the strategic plan, go to http://www.tufts.edu/med/strategicPlan/whatsNew.031606.html.