Review of the Faculty of Medicine and AUB Medical Center

 

Dear colleagues and friends in the AUB Community,

On March 20-22, we were fortunate to host a stellar group of external advisors from several of the finest universities in the United States.  This committed and accomplished group of academic leaders was led by Trustee Michael Collins, Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Vice Chairman for Medicine and Health of the Board of the American University of Beirut.  The committee included several members of the National Academy of Medicine; individuals from world-class universities including Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of California of San Diego and the University of Massachusetts. The reviews were programmatic in nature and not personnel reviews.  The review and the reviewers themselves were engaging and the process itself was observed to be overwhelmingly positive.         We have now received the completed review conducted of the Faculty of Medicine and AUB Medical Center, and await the completion of the review undertaken on the Faculty of Health Sciences. The composition of Faculty of Medicine review team was as follows:     

External Advisors:

EXTERNAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

Michael F. Collins, MD, Vice Chairman for Medicine and Health of the AUB Board of Trustees; Senior Vice President for the Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts and the Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School

J. William Eley, MD, MPH, Executive Associate Dean for Medical Education, Student Affairs, Graduate Medical Education and Continuing Medical Education at Emory University School of Medicine

Philip Pizzo, MD, David and Susan Heckerman Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology and Former Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine and Founding Director, Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute

Judith Swain, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Physiowave Inc., and Visiting Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, Professor of Medicine, the University of California San Diego

AUB Advisors:

Steven Harvey, PhD, Dean, Olayan School of Business

Joseph Habib, Second Year AUB Medical Student

The reviewers spent considerable time with students, trainees, faculty and staff at each of the two above-mentioned faculties and the medical center. The staff and students as well as the faculty were active participants in the review. Executive summaries of these two reviews will soon be made available to our executive leadership team, Deans, Board of Trustees, and the Faculties themselves after we have first reviewed them with the respective deans. The process, participation, transparency and accountability demonstrated by our two faculties were most helpful and will augment our planning, as we develop next steps and move towards further enhancing the missions of these two outstanding faculties and towards our key strategic long term goals of developing the first world class global health science center in the Middle East and Arab world.
 
CHARGE TO THE REVIEW COMMITTEE

In my charge to the group focusing on the AUB FM and AUBMC, I highlighted the following five questions:

1. Are the schools running at the capacity and quality we expect? What is the impact and potential for each school?

2. If a school is doing well but lacking leadership or direction, what do we need to do to get the school to comparability of a top 50 U.S. institution?

3. How should we arrange the health science offerings of the University into a Health Sciences Campus? Organizationally, do we have it right? We are moving towards an EVP for the Health Sciences. How should we arrange the administration of the health sciences?

4. How should we foster increased collaboration with the other offerings of the University, maintaining a first class health sciences campus and not diminishing the other areas of the University?

5. What resources are available to support the health sciences?

Overall assessment of trajectory and performance of the AUB Faculty of Medicine and AUBMC from 2009-2017 was observed to be outstanding, with prominent strengths including: the stellar quality and outcomes in the care of our patients; exemplary progress in building towards the overall University mission and to achieving the goals of the AUBMC 2020 vision; the presence of a strong and unified leadership team; impressive visibility; recruitment of a large number of high quality faculty members; a much strengthened research portfolio; the development of quality controls and substantial achievement of prestigious accreditations and rankings.  The reviewers also commented on the very close working relationship of EVP/Dean with the University President and Provost, and the Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center’s outstanding alignment with the long term Presidential Vision of creating a world class Global Health Sciences Center.
 
As in all reviews, areas where continued improvement was warranted included: continuing to enhance the patient experience; increasing connectivity and communication of leadership with all constituents; increasing operational efficiencies; and further emphasizing an aspirational physician and staff culture, with better role modeling from all faculty and staff for medical students and trainees.
 
In summary, we are heartened by this transparent, participatory and thoughtful review, which has reinforced our conviction that our outstanding AUB Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center continue to make tremendous strides towards achieving the goals outlined in the AUBMC 2020 vision and in setting the stage for our comprehensive Health 2025 Vision.  We will be sharing these findings in some detail and further elaborating on progress towards our university wide Health Sciences Center vision in a series of town hall meetings that EVP/Dean Sayegh and I will be holding in the Fall.

Best regards,   
 
Fadlo R. Khuri, MD
President