JOAN AND SANFORD I. WEILL MEDICAL COLLEGE
AND
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES OF
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
GENERAL FACULTY COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting held March 11, 2002
Uris Faculty Room (A-126)
Present: Dr. Randi Silver, Dr. William A.
Muller, Dr. Stephen T. Chasen, Dr. Joseph T. Cooke, Dr.
Bernice Grafstein, Dr. Lonny Levin, Dr. Michael Lockshin,
Dr. Louis Maggio, Dr. Takashi Mikawa, Dr. Teresa Milner,
Dr. Ellinor Peerschke, Dr. Kenneth Rifkind, Dr. Ruth Rosenblatt,
Dr. Richard Schwarz, Dr. David A. Shapiro, Dr. Animesh Sinha,
Dr. Robert Snow, Dr. Suresh Tate and Dr. Michael Ushay.
Also Present: Dr. Mark Albano, Dr. Bruce L.
Ballard, Dr. Charles Bardes, Ms. Joanne Blauer, Dr. Frank
A. Chervenak, Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, Jr, Dr. Peter Marzuk,
Ms. Susan B. McCreight, Ms. Carolyn Reid, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks,
Dr. Lisa Staiano-Coico and Dr. Carol Storey-Johnson.
3:30pm: Following the arrival of
the non-voting members, Dr. Silver convened the meeting.
I. ACTION ITEMS
1.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES. The Council approved the minutes of
its meeting held February 14. 2002.
2. APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS. The Council
approved the recommendations of the Committee of Review
as listed in the Committee’s memorandum dated February 21,
2002.
3. INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATION AGREEMENT.
The Council approved the International Affiliation Agreement
among Cornell University for its Joan and Sanford I. Weill
Medical College (Cornell), the Trustees of Columbia University
in the City of New York for its College of Physicians and
Surgeons (Columbia), NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH)
and Group Florence Nightingale (GFN), Istanbul, Turkey.
GFN is a consortium of three private, non-profit
hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey with a total of 440 beds.
Each hospital has its own specialty concentration: Florence
Nightingale Hospital specializes in cardiology, cardiac
surgery and orthopedics; Metropol Hospital specializes in
Oncology, GYN and IVF; and, Avrupa is a children’s hospital.
GFN ranks among the ten best hospitals in Turkey, of which
eight are State University hospitals. All three GFN hospitals
are teaching institutions. GFN has recently started a medical
school, which is affiliated with the University of Istanbul.
It has a six-year curriculum and will graduate its first
class of 75 students in 2005. GFN has a relationship with
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for oncology services,
and with the Hospital for Special Surgery for orthopedic
and rehabilitation services. At this time, GFN seeks an
International Affiliation with NYPH, Cornell and Columbia
for Continuing Medical Education (CME) for their medical
staff and the referral of patients for tertiary and quaternary
medical care. There is a future potential for exchanges
of Weill Cornell medical students which will be explored
after familiarity with each institution is established.
This Agreement resembles our other international
affiliations with hospitals, such as our Agreement with
the American Hospital of Paris. This proposed Affiliation
Agreement does not violate the provisions of the Medical
College’s existing International Affiliation Agreement with
the American Hospital, Istanbul. American Hospital medical
staff will be able to participate in the CME programs conducted
by Weill Cornell faculty at GFN.
II. REPORT ITEMS
1. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT. Dr. Silver reported
that the Steering Committee of the GFC has chosen imaging
as the topic for the 2002-2003 GFC Sponsored Course and
she asked that members of the Council contact the Committee
with suggestions for lecture topics, speakers and a course
director.
2. DOUBLE REGISTRATION PROGRAM. Dr. Charles
L. Bardes, Associate Dean (Admissions), and Dr. Carol Storey-Johnson,
Senior Associate Dean (Education), reported to the Council
on the discontinuation of the Double Registration Program
with Ithaca.
The Double Registration Program was a joint
program with Cornell University (CU) in Ithaca and WMC established
in 1973. The Program allowed Cornell undergraduate students
in the Biology major to complete the fourth year of the
baccalaureate degree concurrent with their first year at
the Medical College, which enabled students to earn both
their B.A. and M.D. degrees in seven years. The Office
of Admissions at CU has removed this program from the CU
Programs of Study. The reasons sited for this discontinuation
were: the Medical College’s interdisciplinary curriculum
has been significantly changed since the establishment of
the program and no longer supports the course requirements
for the fourth year of the baccalaureate degree in the Biology
major at CU; the current philosophy of the Medical College
Office of Admissions places emphasis on the breadth and
depth of experience of its applicants, placing at a disadvantage
students applying for admission to WMC during their third
undergraduate year; and there have been no applicants to
the Program in the past decade. Dr. Bardes confirmed that
these reasons warranted the discontinuation of the Double
Registration Program.
3. REPORT ON WEILL CORNELL COMPETITIVENESS.
Dr. Bardes reported on WMC competitiveness among peer institutions.
Forty-seven per-cent of the students offered admission to
the WMC Class of 2005 matriculated, as compared to 40% for
the Class of 2004. Forty-five percent selected to attend
other medical schools including Harvard, Johns Hopkins,
Stanford, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Yale, Washington U. St.
Louis, UCLA and UCSF. Dr. Bardes noted the dominant trend
among students to follow the rankings of the “US News &
World Report” Medical College rankings when choosing schools.
Financial aid and cost of attending were not reported as
critical factors in the decision making process, with the
exception of programs such as UCLA that provide substantial
tuition reductions to in-state applicants.
Dr. Bardes reported that despite the AAMC’s
suggestion there are no plans to increase class size at
the Medical College. Dr. Gotto noted that the facilities
and curriculum developments provided for in the Strategic
Plan dictate the current class size and preclude the possibility
of an increase.
4. WMC MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO. The recent
video of 2001
WMC media coverage highlights, produced by
the WMC Office of Public Affairs, was shown to the Council.
5. IRB COMPLIANCE. Dr. Lisa Staiano-Coico,
Senior Associate Dean (Research), discussed Institutional
Review Board (IRB) Compliance issues at the Medical College.
The Compliance Division including the
IRB Office and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
has relocated to 425 East 61st Street. The move
has enabled the IRB to hire up to 11.5 full-time employees
and an internal auditor, allowing the IRB to begin to conduct
random internal audits of 10% of all protocols received
per year, in addition to the audits currently conducted
on specific protocols. In addition, due to high volume
of protocols received by the IRB, a second IRB will be established.
The anticipated starting date of the second IRB is July
1, 2002. Dr. Staiano-Coico invited the members of the Council
to nominate qualified candidates to sit on both IRBs and
to submit suggestions regarding the organization of the
new IRB. The IRB has also established the Serious Adverse
Events Committee which meets weekly to discuss IRB compliance
issues at the Medical College.
Dr. Staiano-Coico reported that the IRB is
using PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an internal audit
of the IRB’s operations, forms and organization. The auditors
have assisted in the creation of a new IRB Investigator
Manual which includes a detailed checklist of steps necessary
to complete an IRB protocol and a new consent form for research
subjects which explains in detail each element of consent.
The IRB is also testing a new web-based database which will
greatly increase access to IRB protocol records by the WMC
faculty.
6.
DEAN’S REPORT. Dr. Gotto reported on several issues discussed
at the recent meeting of the Council of Deans of the Association
of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Many of the issues
concerning the AAMC’s online application process have been
resolved and the full solution will be reached by 2004.
The AAMC has also approved a new format for the Dean’s Letter,
however, some specific issues of the new format, including
the proposed requirement to quantify a student’s level of
professionalism, have not been resolved.
The AAMC has reported that the movement in
Congress to ban the future development of human stem cells
for research is gaining momentum. Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, Co-Director
of the Institute for Reproductive Medicine, expressed his
belief that Congress would move to ban stem cell development
based on meetings he has attended with various Congressmen.
Dr. Gotto noted that several WMC investigators are involved
in stem cell research sponsored by private, for-profit groups.
Dr. Gotto reported that the Medical College
is in the final stages of negotiation with candidates for
the Chairmanship of the Department of Pediatrics and the
Department of Physiology and Biophysics and that he hopes
to bring definitive news to the Council at its next meeting.
7. ADJOURNMENT. The meeting was adjourned
at 4:30pm.
