Page 3 - School of Medicine and Dentistry | University of Rochester Medical Center

Transforming Education

A Message from the Dean

The 21st century is experiencing a revolution in health care, not only
in the ways we prevent, diagnose, and treat disease, but also in the
composition of the health care delivery system.

The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry has always
been an innovator in education and research, and in developing new
approaches to health care delivery. We teach students to take into account
the psychological, interpersonal, and societal influences in the diagnosis
and treatment of patients. We believe that medical care in the future will
feature a “dream team” of health care professionals, including physicians,
nurses, social workers, and technicians, who will provide coordinated,
targeted, cost-effective, and compassionate care.

Your physical examination will be complemented by smartphone-
based technology that will provide real-time information not unlike the
“tricorder” of Star Trek. This will include using a handheld ultrasound
device to check for heart disease, kidney stones, pregnancy, and more.
Together with an information system that will enable real-time access to your complete medical history, and a comprehensive
understanding of your genetic makeup, we will be able to practice “personalized medicine.” This will enable us to tailor disease
treatment for each individual—such as knowing exactly which blood pressure medicines will work—and will also guide us in
recommending regimens that will best prevent disease.

Your health care will be a continuing process coordinated by your physician, and extending far beyond an office visit or
hospitalization. Technology will allow your health care team to monitor from afar key aspects of your medical condition to assure
that you are doing well or to make necessary adjustments to your medical regimen at the earliest stage, avoiding “routine” office
visits, trips to the emergency room or hospitalizations.

Realizing this vision requires physicians who can interact and work well in teams and are trained to use the latest technology and
scientific information. You can help make this happen. Scholarship funds will help attract top quality students who will become
exceptional health care professionals and researchers of the future. Endowed professorships and research innovation funds will
attract the best and brightest medical scientists and enable them to conduct cutting-edge research.

We are proud of our rich history of educational innovation and confident in our future. You can play an active role in helping
to create health care’s next generation of leaders by supporting The Meliora Challenge: The Campaign for the University of
Rochester. I invite you to join our mission to make the world’s physicians “ever better.”

Best Regards,

On the cover: John T. Hansen, Ph.D., associate dean for Admissions and
professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Katie Herman ‘09, ‘09E (BM),
Mark B. Taubman, M.D. an M.D./Ph.D student, discuss the conduction system within the heart.
Dean, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

The School of Medicine and Dentistry 3