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Health Affairs Committee
September 14, 2000
The Health Affairs Committee of the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees met on Thursday, September 14, 2000, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 107-C of the Osborne Administration Building.
Members present were: Mr. J. DuPre Miller, Chairman; Mr. Arthur S. Bahnmuller; Mr. Alexander English via telephone; Mr. A. C. Fennell, III; Mr. Samuel R. Foster, II; Mr. M. Wayne Staton; Mr. John C. von Lehe, Jr., via telephone; Mr. William C. Hubbard, Board Chairman; and Mr. Mack I. Whittle, Jr., Board Vice Chairman. Mrs. Helen C. Harvey was absent. Other Trustees present were: Mr. Toney J. Lister and Mr. Othniel H. Wienges, Jr.
Others present were: President John M. Palms; Secretary Thomas L. Stepp; Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Jerome D. Odom; Vice President for Human Resources Jane Jameson; Vice President for Student and Alumni Services Dennis A. Pruitt; Vice President for Development Charles D. Phlegar; Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine Larry R. Faulkner; Dean of the College of Nursing Mary Ann Parsons; Dean of the College of Pharmacy Farid Sadik; representatives from the School of Public Health: Dean Harris Pastides, Associate Dean for Research Russell Pate, Assistant Dean for Administration Cheryl Addy, and Information Technology Manager Ron Price; and representative from Media Relations Jason Snyder.
Chairman Miller called the meeting to order and welcomed those present asking everyone to introduce themselves. Secretary Stepp noted that no members of the media were present. Chairman Miller stated that the agenda had been posted and the press had been notified as required by the Freedom of Information Act; the agenda had been circulated to the Committee; and a quorum was present to conduct business.
With respect to collaborative educational activities, Dean Faulkner reported on the following special programs: Rural Primary Care, Joint Bioethics Curriculum, and the M.D./M.P.H. Program.
The Rural Primary Care program was a collaborative effort of the past decade whereby the health science schools initiated a program, unique to South Carolina, which was a model for rural primary care education. Centers had been established in both Winnsboro (1992) and in Kershaw (1998). Planning was underway for a third center in Bennettsville. These were model primary care practices that served as laboratories for the education of multi-disciplinary students from all of the health science schools. Faculty from the health science schools participated in the super-vision and education of students in the centers, and since 1992, over 400 health science students had been trained at the centers. Additionally, there were approxi-mately 250 new nursing students who attended one-day rotations in the centers.
Within the past few years, the Associate Deans from each of the health science schools had been working to develop a Joint Bioethics Curriculum, and an "Ethics in Health Sciences" course was scheduled to begin in Spring 2001.
In 1999, a joint M.D./M.P.H. program was established, and two students were currently enrolled. There were also M.P.H. programs in collaboration with Nursing and Social Work that had been in existence for a number of years.
With respect to collaborative research endeavors, Dean Faulkner reported on Research Funding, Centers of Research Excellence (CORE) Seed Grant Program, and Summer Research Fellowship Program.
The University received a total of $122,000,000 in research funding in 1999-2000. Of that amount, the health sciences schools generated $3.4 million which was 31 percent. The schools hoped to increase that percentage of funding more significantly in the years ahead.
One way to encourage faculty to be more productive in research was to help them get started with seed grant funding. The CORE Seed Grant Program, begun in 1995, offered monies to researchers from any unit in the University who wanted to collaborate in a multi-disciplinary way with other faculty when a proposal for funding was submitted to one of the CORE. The CORE are in Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Geriatrics, Bioethics and Health Services Research. Approximately $1.2 million in seed grant funding had been awarded since 1995, and 40 percent of that total was awarded to non-School of Medicine principal investigators. There were 90 different faculty members who received the funding, and 33 percent of them were non-School of Medicine faculty.
The Summer Research Fellowship Program, begun in 1995, supported biomedical research opportunities for USC undergraduates to have a closely supervised and mentored research experience in a laboratory. There were 199 fellowships totaling $587,300 awarded from a wide variety of departments.
With respect to collaborative professional service activities, Dean Faulkner reported on the Clinical Faculty Practice Plan and the Practice Plan Revenues.
The Clinical Faculty Practice Plan was composed of ten units within the School of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, and the College of Social Work. While the vast majority of the revenue was generated through the School of Medicine, the other colleges were getting started in the Practice Plan. It was expected that, over time, the activities of the other colleges within the Plan would generate additional revenues for them.
Chairman Miller thanked Dean Faulkner for his report which was received for information.
Dean Pastides began his report titled "Momentum, Aspirations, and Challenges" by saying that the School of Public Health had plenty of all three.
Dean Pastides provided "fast facts" to re-acquaint the Committee with the School of Public Health. During the current year, there were: 813 students, most of whom were graduate students; 74 faculty, 55 of whom were on the tenure tract; and over 100 staff, most of whom were involved in sponsored programs and research activities. There was an increasing number of joint faculty appointments with other units at the University, including the College of Pharmacy, the School of Medicine, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the College of Liberal Arts.
The SPH was housed in nine different buildings around the campus and in downtown Columbia. The school had six formal departments: 1) Communication Sciences and Disorders, 2) Environmental Health Sciences, 3) Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 4) Exercise Science, 5) Health Administration, and 6) Health Promotion and Education.
The SPH was primarily a graduate and professional school. The graduate part of its mission referred to doctoral training, research master's degree preparation aimed at national recruitment, and provide the national leaders in research and education. The professional part of its mission referred to the training of large numbers of Master's of Public Health students to take leadership positions in the state and the Southeast.
Every one of the six departments offered an array of master's programs, and every department had one or more active and high quality doctoral programs. There was one undergraduate program within the SPH: the Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science. It was very popular with its 250 students. Collaborative degree programs either existed or were planned with the Colleges of Nursing and Social Work and with the Schools of Medicine and Law.
With respect to Momentum, the SPH was working towards an invitation to the Association of American Universities (AAU) via its research efforts. The SPH was among USC's colleges with high research productivity per faculty FTE. In the past year, the school represented 11.5 percent of the total sponsored programs budget at USC even though it had only 5 percent of the total faculty.
Grants and contracts had increased at least 25 percent per year for each of the last three years. In FY 1999, sponsored programs accounted for one half of the school's total budget of $11 million, but in FY 2000, sponsored programs accounted for 57 percent of the total budget of $19.3 million.
Funding for FY 2000 came from state allocations ($2,263,948); private sources ($2,368,675); and federal sources ($8,263,783) of which $1,837,716 was from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH's budget was rising by immense proportions, and Dean Pastides opined that the SPH could increase funding in this area.
With respect to the momentum of academics, Dean Pastides said that applications, admissions, and enrollments were stable at a time when, nationally, graduate and professional schools' applications were down. The USC SPH was the ninth largest of the only 28 accredited schools of public health in the United States and was among the most comprehensive. The USC SPH had a very diverse student body and had the second highest proportion of African-American students of any school of public health in the United States.
The momentum of outreach included a leadership role in the state. Dean Pastides and Dean Faulkner were members of the State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) Steering Committee. Faculties and researchers had deep involvements with agencies and communities.
With respect to Aspirations, the SPH wanted to sustain the level of research growth, to increase NIH funding, and to recruit up to three nationally recognized faculty leaders.
There was a newly established Office of Research to improve both the infrastructure for research and scholarship and to increase collaboration with other health science colleges, other units at USC, and with MUSC and Clemson.
The SPH was investing in a new Center for Nutrition. Dr. Pastides noted that nutrition had not previously been a formal organized activity at the University. There was great opportunity for funding as well as great need with the citizens, and plans included the creation of a demonstration kitchen.
Additionally, the SPH aspired to increase the quality of its student body and the national recruitment of its Ph.D. students. The doctoral program in Health Promotion and Education was ranked fifth nationally, and Dr. Pastides wanted more SPH programs to be ranked at that level.
The SPH would continue its innovation in degree offerings such as the first Doctor of Physical Therapy degree program in South Carolina and the first Master of Public Health in Physical Activity program in the United States. It would also offer additional distance educational programs.
With respect to Challenges, the SPH needed to be less department and discipline oriented in its teaching and research. Public Health, by its nature, demanded a more interdisciplinary approach.
Space was another challenge. The SPH was moving forward in its capital campaign; it had attracted private support, state bonding, federal support, and was hoping for support from a major foundation. A budget of $17 million had been proposed for renovation of its 1960s building and construction of an annex adjacent to the current facility although its location had not been finalized. The objective was to bring SPH faculty together in a central facility.
In summary, Dean Pastides said that the SPH was helping the University reach its ambitions for prominence in teaching and research as well as helping South Carolinians become a healthier population through teaching, research, and outreach activities.
Dean Pastides then responded to questions regarding the excellent job opportunities for graduates from each department within the SPH, the national shortage of public health manpower, the University's efforts to educate young people about the field of public health and the job opportunities associated with it, several of the specific degree offerings within the SPH and the next step for the majority of those graduates, and the desire of many students to earn an undergraduate degree in public health.
Mr. Bahnmuller noted that there was a great amount of space available in the Coliseum.
There was discussion regarding financial difficulties associated with hospitals and changes in federal regulations with respect to subsidized payments and reimbursements. The situation was creating a need for better trained health professionals who were aware of the changes and the impact of the regulatory changes. The SPH benefitted in that individuals returned for more specialized training in the areas of Health Management, Health Administration, and Financial Analysis, and the School did not suffer declining clinical income because the SPH was not clinically based.
It was noted that the private health care system had been untouched by the new regulations which fundamentally stated the federal government would no longer pay for the care of the indigent through Medicaid and other types of programs. There was great concern for the people who might be turned away from Palmetto Richland Hospital, Palmetto Baptist Hospital, and the Medical University of South Carolina because their inability to pay for services might cause those institutions to lose money or, potentially, to become bankrupt.
Dean Faulkner interjected that it had only been since the reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance had begun to decrease, that the profit margins for these institutions had begun to fall. He believed the result would be an increase in the need for the expertise from collaborative efforts among the health sciences schools and colleges and also with businesses.
Provost Odom added that the deans of all of the health sciences schools and colleges recognized the fact that, in terms of research, the University of South Carolina needed to be more active at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The University needed to position itself strategically through its hiring to take advantage of the increase in available NIH funding. The health sciences schools and colleges served the people of the state in so many ways, but at the same time, they had very active, vigorous research programs that were helping the University achieve its goals.
Chairman Miller thanked Dean Pastides for the report which was received for information.
Additionally, NCR began funding a $1 million endowed chair in computer architecture in 1992. NCR had now completed the funding for that chair enabling the College of Engineering and Information Technology to begin a search for a world class individual.
There were no other matters to come before the Committee, and upon the appropriate motion by Mr. Bahnmuller, Chairman Miller declared the meeting adjourned at 11:05 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas L. Stepp
Secretary