We have good news on the financial front. Compared to last year, practice plan revenues are up, and we’re making progress on reining in expenses. Fiscal year 2006-2007 operating revenues were $104 million through April, up nearly 10 percent from a year ago. Operating expenses were $108.4 million, up 4.5 percent from last year.

While we’re still running a deficit, we’ve narrowed the gap. This improvement is due to several factors. We’ve improved billing practices, resulting in better collections. We’ve negotiated higher rates for contracted services we provide to outside organizations. We’ve cut costs through a select hiring freeze and by changing moving expenses for new employees to other funding sources. Looking at these trends, we expect to close the deficit further by the end of the fiscal year.

A big thank-you goes out to our staff, faculty and administrators across the entire university for their work in helping improve our financial picture and give us a positive outlook for next year.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is suggesting that medical schools across the country increase their enrollment by 30 percent over the next 10 years to offset pending physician shortages. To address that charge, we established a task force of faculty, students, administrators and others to analyze a possible increase in the size of the entering class.

The entering class size at Brody has grown from 28 in 1977 to 72, which it has been since 1986. Accredited medical schools must notify the Liaison Committee on Medical Education of any plans to increase enrollment. Increases of more than 15 students, or greater than a 10 percent increase over one year, or more than a 20 percent increase over three years will result in an on-site re-evaluation by the LCME. Increases below those amounts require only LCME review and approval of documentation before accepting the additional students.

This summer, our task force will formalize the process, timeline and needed resources for increasing the entering class size. The task force will present a formal report in the fall. As we work to increase the size of the class, we will strive to protect the “ambience” of Brody and make sure the personal learner-teacher relationship remains.

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We are in the early stages of the HealthSpan project with University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina. HealthSpan is the new electronic medical record, computerized physician order entry, pharmacy and other health care applications UHS and ECU will be using. It’s made by Epic Systems.

We have had a few demonstrations at Brody to introduce the software. So far, the response has been positive. PCMH will pilot its first departments on the system in June. Brody will start HealthSpan planning and training in July, and we plan to introduce it in a few departments in October 2008. All clinical staff in the medical school will use it. The School of Dentistry will likely use it for its clinical work, too.

While Logician and IDX have been successful software applications for us, we decided to proceed with UHS on implementing HealthSpan due to the many benefits it will bring us and our patients: increased efficiency, improved patient safety, faster access to hospital records and improved communication between providers. Carol Davis of Information Technology and Computing Services is leading our transition to HealthSpan.

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Several construction and renovation projects are occurring on or near the health sciences campus. Here are updates on some of them:

Brody Medical Sciences Building: Projects to renovate the auditorium, the former Laupus Library space, the 2-West dining room and the 2E-100 lecture hall are at various stages.

Dental school: We’ve received designs from several firms for this 112,500-square-foot building, and the selection process will begin this summer.

East Carolina Heart Institute: We "topped out" this 210,000-square-foot clinical, educational and research building today. Construction is expected to be complete next May.

Family Medicine Center: This new 102,000-square-foot facility and the new 11,000-square-foot geriatric center to be built beside it will be near the corner of Heart and Arlington boulevards. The FMC will consist of exam modules, offices, patient service areas and support space. Design is in the schematic phase with the project to be bid out for construction in January. Construction should begin next March and be completed by July 2009.

Health sciences student services building: Firms have submitted design proposals for this new 50,000-square-foot building. It likely will include dining areas, a bookstore, lounge space, meeting rooms, recreation areas, health services, student support offices and other student services functions.

Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center: Advertisements for a designer for renovations on the first and second floors of the cancer center will go out in June.

Moye Medical Center: ECU is not building this facility on Moye Boulevard, but we will lease it. It will provide clinical and office space for cardiology, pulmonology and critical care medicine, internal medicine and possibly others.

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We can take pride in knowing the Brody School of Medicine is one of the top 10 medical schools in the country for sending graduates into family medicine, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

ECU ranks eighth among accredited U.S. medical schools in the percentage of graduates it sends into family medicine residency programs. Representatives of Brody and the other schools were recognized April 27 at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine meeting in Chicago. This ranking follows Brody’s ranking of sixth among schools that emphasize primary care by “U.S. News & World Report” in April.

For more evidence we’re succeeding in our mission of educating primary care physicians for North Carolina, 19 percent of Brody’s graduating students matched with family medicine residency programs during the school’s annual Match Day.

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Congratulations to the following medical school faculty members who have received grants from the ECU Division of Research and Graduate Studies: Mariavittoria Pitzalis, Ruth Schwalbe, David Collier, Christopher Wingard, Timothy Johnson, Omur Cinar Elci and Yan-Hua Chen. The grants range from $19,480 to $35,000.

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Seven students at the Brody School of Medicine have been selected as 2007-2008 N.C. Albert Schweitzer Fellows. The students will commit to a year of service with a community agency, devoting more than 800 hours to communities lacking access to adequate health services.

The fellows are Wylie Carhartt, Holly Moye, Natalie Desouza, Rita Sridaran, Bari Eberhardt, Mary Catherine Knight and Courtney Weems. Congratulations to these students, and good luck to them on their projects.

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We would like to hold forums to better communicate with Brody staff. These forums would cover clinical operations, research activities, teaching, administration, construction and other topics. Please contact Dr. Nicholas Benson with your suggestions on what you would like to discuss in these forums and when would be a good time of day to hold them.

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