Dr. Harvey Meislin is head of the UA department of emergency medicine and director of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center.

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TEACHERS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

We feel compelled to respond to recent coverage of the University of Arizona Committee of Eleven's report outlining concerns of some faculty within the College of Medicine. The report's negative slant is not borne out by our experience as department heads and center directors within the college.

The College of Medicine is in the ascendancy, increasing the number of faculty, expanding clinical and training sites, and creating models for education. Yes, we see a faculty stressed by the tremendous growth of the college in an era of scarce resources, but look what has been achieved in 24 months: a new medical campus in Phoenix; a new curriculum for 21st century physicians; the addition of world-class faculty members; the opening of a beautiful new medical-research building; and new medical residencies for UPH Hospital at Kino Campus, among many other achievements.

As of 2005, the college basically had remained the same size for 15 years, and we are paying the price for it now. Even so, in 2005 the college was second in the nation in federal funding for medical colleges with fewer than 600 faculty. After the college experienced a substantial drop in federal grant funding that year, we undertook an aggressive initiative to recruit accomplished medical researchers, resulting in the recruitment of more than 50 research faculty since 2006, with an attendant increase in grant funding.

We know it is a struggle for faculty to meet the college's triple mission of excellent patient care, education of the state's next generation of physicians and translational research that will improve the health of all Arizonans. But we must continue to grow to address Arizona's spiraling health-care needs and severe physician shortage.

For example, University Physicians Healthcare has taken the bold step of assuming responsibility for University Physicians Hospital at Kino Campus. While UPH is experiencing the growing pains for a new hospital, this academic health center ensures Tucson's South Side has a full-service hospital and it provides tremendous opportunities for faculty growth and medical education.

The UA has gained national recognition and admiration for launching the Phoenix program of the College of Medicine, in partnership with Arizona State University. This bold initiative is unique in the nation.

The Arizona Telemedicine Program is the envy of the nation, with one-of-a kind technologies to disseminate education, clinical care and research throughout the state and beyond.

Our focus on diversity and gender equity is nationally recognized. The College of Medicine was selected as one of four (of 126) medical schools nationally to pilot a project for increasing recruitment of underrepresented minorities to medical school. We have been deemed the most successful partner in this project. Our college has gained national recognition for attention to equal compensation for female faculty, and locally for having the largest percentage increase in tenured female faculty for any college at the University of Arizona.

This growth has taken place during a challenging time for academic medicine. Nationally, physicians in medical schools are spending more time in clinical pursuits to cover the costs associated with their practice. Fewer options are available to cover the costs associated with their research pursuits.

Simultaneously, in large part because of the substantial physician shortage, private-practice salaries are rising quickly, creating an attractive alternative for those medical school faculty seeking higher levels of compensation. Even though the salaries of our clinical faculty are equivalent to national standards for public medical schools, the marketplace demands that we do better.

Certainly these long-overdue changes are provoking an appropriate level of anxiety in the College of Medicine, but we are proud to be a part of this bold look forward, and embrace it with enthusiasm.