From the Vice President for Medical Affairs

Welcome to Changing Medicine. Changing Lives.®, the first annual report of University of Iowa Health Care. UI Health Care was created by integrating the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and University of Iowa Physicians. As an integrated health care delivery, education, and research enterprise, UI Health Care is becoming a national model for 21st century academic medicine, unifying our missions and working as one.

Across our enterprise, we share a common mission, vision, and values that are shaping our definition of excellence. From our students to our clinical staff to our faculty and research scientists, we share a singular focus on quality and innovation, achieved through multi-disciplinary collaborative team efforts.

Together, we are working to live out our mission of changing medicine, changing lives. In this report, you will find descriptions of only a very small sample of the many ways we are changing medicine through groundbreaking research, dynamic educational curricula, and leading-edge patient care. The impact of these advances is to change the lives of those who are looking to us to prevent and cure complex diseases throughout Iowa, our nation, and—through the community of scientists and practitioners—the world.

The delivery of sophisticated patient care is only as good as our ability to assure the best quality care, outstanding outcomes, and highest standards of patient safety, coupled with an environment and caregivers who provide the best possible patient experience. By studying and sharing data related to quality and safety, our physicians, nurses, and other caregivers can make better care decisions. By improving our information technology systems, we can reduce medication errors, more quickly identify opportunities to improve bedside care, and more strongly focus on evidence-based care across a broad spectrum of medical specialties, yielding better outcomes for our patients.

Included in our plans for improving the patient experience is a long-term expansion and renovation program that will transform our facilities and the way we deliver care. Simultaneously, we are strengthening our commitment to research and discovery with the addition of laboratory space that will be dedicated to new and expanding research programs in diabetes, developmental biology, aging, and many more.

As important as facilities are, they are only part of the story. We must continue to attract the best and brightest faculty and students, seeking out those with the potential to become world-class, while providing the best possible environment for learning and research. That means having not only contemporary facilities and equipment but also a dedication to continued innovation in our educational curriculum and in the conduct of our research.

If these plans sound ambitious, they are. However, we believe we will accomplish all of this—and more—by building partnerships:

• Within The University of Iowa, we will provide new opportunities for collaboration and discovery.
• With our faculty, students, and staff, we will seek a renewed commitment to excellence.
• With Iowa’s physician community, we will work to improve quality, service, and access for patients, seeking to increase collaboration, clinical trial participation, and referrals, as well as prepare the next generation of physicians to help serve the future health care needs of our state.
• With business and industry, we will seek investments to support our expansion plans and continue to be a strong economic engine, adding strength to the state’s economy.
• With the Iowa Legislature, we will work collaboratively to shape public health policy for the future.
• With alumni and donors, we will nurture support of our planned transformation into a truly world-class enterprise.
• With and for all Iowans, we will work hard to earn your continued trust.

Changing medicine, changing lives. We are dedicated to this mission with singular purpose, energy, and commitment because we aspire to be truly world-class in all our endeavors.

Jean Robillard, MD