As part of the continued alignment efforts, IU School of Medicine and IU Health are jointly establishing new cardiovascular, neuroscience and cancer institutes. These umbrella entities transcend multiple departments and are designed to maximize the collaborations between education, research and clinical care. The goal is to fully realize the promise of academic medicine to better address the most pressing challenges facing patients. Last year, a big first step was taken in the recruitment of directors for each of the institutes. (See below.)
The institutes are designed to complement the role of departments at IU School of Medicine and capitalize on their strengths. Each institute leader or leadership team will have oversight of significant new funds from IU Health and the School of Medicine to invest in innovations and strategic priorities. It is expected that in many cases these funds will be co-invested with department leadership to support strategic recruitments or, as an example, to fund new fellowship or clinical positions. This should create a nimbler pathway for launching new programs or piloting new ideas than currently exists.
The same is true of our research centers. The IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, Krannert Institute of Cardiology and other such centers will continue to pursue their research programs. Through their participation in the institutes, we expect to more closely align and maximize the synergies of our education, research and clinical programs.
