Bringing The Best of American Medicine To Those Who Need It The Most

In The USA and the World

When I moved from Johns Hopkins to the Ohio State University (OSU) at the end of 1996, the Cardiology Division was in space that used to belong to the tuberculosis sanatorium of Columbus, a dreadful location, not compatible with the work site of a premier Cardiology Group. Hence, many patients were reluctant to receive their care at OSU and would seek care at non-university hospitals of the region. I was recruited initially to build and lead a heart and lung research institute, now known as the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute of OSU, which now hosts the Division of Cardiology. I rapidly was promoted to Director of the OSU Cardiology Division, and realized that we needed a Heart Hospital to compete effectively with other private practices in the region.

In partnership with my friend and then Director of the Cardiothoracic Division of OSU, Robert E. Michler, M.D., we launched the heart hospital project. I was not trained as a hospital operator, but learned all the necessary steps of founding and developing a highly successful Heart Hospital which is still a flagship hospital for OSU, the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, one of the best hospitals in the country for heart and vascular care.

From OSU I was recruited by Duke University to become their Duke Chief of Cardiology. With friends and colleagues Thomas Ryan, M.D., then Director of the Duke Heart Center, Robert M. Califf, M.D., then Director of the Duke Center for Clinical Research, and Peter K. Smith, M.D., Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, we quickly moved the rankings for Duke Cardiovascular to #3 in the U.S.

I was promoted to be the Chairman of the entire Duke Department of Medicine, the largest and probably most renown department of Duke. It is with this job that I learned how to successfully operate hospitals, clinics and health systems. Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor Emeritus, served as Duke Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine from 1989 to July 2004. He was the Founding President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Duke University Health System. Snyderman and William J. Donelan, executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO) of the Duke University Health System, vice chancellor for health affairs of Duke had formed a small cabinet of leaders. Only three Chairmen were invited to partake in the weekly meeting, Carl E. Ravin, M.D., President of the PDC, the Duke Physician Practice, and Chairman of the department of radiology, Danny O. Jacobs, M.D., Chairman of the department of surgery, and Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., the Chairman of the department of medicine. Together, as a team, we would review all the operational key performance indicators for Duke Hospitals and Clinics, make strategic decisions and address major issues. We would manage up and down with the Trustees, key stakeholders, physicians, nurses and other paramedicals. It was a formidable opportunity to master hospital and clinic management, and a great preparation for the next major step in my career.

This is when, in 2006, Donna E. Shalala, then President of the University of Miami (UM) recruited me to be the Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, thus taking the helm for everything medical at UM. At the time, there was no health system. UM did not have an acute care hospital, patients in need of acute care hospital care had to be transferred to the Jackson Memorial Hospital, a safety net hospital for Miami Dade County, which had been maintained poorly and our patients, and employees and their families, were choosing instead to be admitted to non-public hospitals of Miami, including Cedars, a 550-bed hospital on our campus that was belonging to HCA. To deal with this problem, the plan for UM when I arrived, was to build a new facility with inpatient beds (100 beds with the hope to expand to 300 at some point), at a cost of $500,000,000, not counting cost of interest on the loan. Construction was to take five years. It became rapidly clear to me and my leadership team that we did not have either the time nor the resources to engage in such a project. Instead, we decided to purchase Cedars on our campus for $275,000,000 ($500,000/bed, instead of $5,000,000/bed as per the prior project). Moreover, Cedars, then renamed University of Miami Hospital, was a going concern that we did not need to start from scratch. We were also eliminating a major competition, HCA, from our campus.

This is when, in 2007, we formerly established UHealth, the UM Health System, powered by our University practice group, the University of Miami Medical Group (UMMG), and the medical science produced by the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. We immediately started to expand the reach of our practice to South Florida, on both the east and west coasts, with major outpatient clinic facilities in Deerfield, Plantation, Hollywood, and Naples to name a few, and by doing so, we have improved substantially the quality of the medicine we delivered not only on our campus in downtown Miami, but also throughout South Florida. We were able, and for the first time in our history, to provide the full complement of care to our patients and within our own facilities, except for a few specialties, that, out of respect for our affiliation with the Jackson Health System, we continued to practice exclusively at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The competing hospitals and health systems had to improve their game also to remain relevant, with the tide, all ships rise, and we were creating the tide.

We were able to transform the University of Miami Hospital from a mediocre community hospital, into a true academic teaching hospital, with outstanding physicians and nurses that provide unique opportunities for patients in distress due to a multitude of illnesses in the various specialties of: Cardiology, Otolaryngology, Urology, Orthopedics, Sports Medicine, Neurosurgery, Neurology, Emergency- Intensive- General- and Geriatric-Medicine and Surgery, Gastroenterology- Liver- Lung- Infectious Diseases- Endocrine- Rheumatology-Medicine, Gynecology, Vascular- Bariatric- Maxillofacial- and Reconstructive-Surgery, Psychiatry, Human Genetics, Dermatology, and for the sickest patients in need of Surgical and Medical Oncology care. All these disciplines were supported by outstanding connective disciplines such as Anesthesia, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pharmacology, Radiology, Interventional and Radiation Oncology, Rehabilitation Medicine, and Physical Therapy. Our UMMG physicians were also performing state of the art medical and surgical services at the facilities of our two affiliate systems, Jackson and the Miami Veteran Administration Medical Center in multiple disciplines, including Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Trauma, and solid organ transplant, to name a few.

UHealth has provided many opportunities to the people of South Florida. At our Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Hospital, we are offering the only truly integrated, multidisciplinary cancer care in which medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, oncological surgeons, along with experts in many other disciplines, form tumor boards and collaborate to review diagnoses, select the best treatments and provide access to cutting-edge research opportunities. The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital climbed rapidly inpatient volumes and reputation to become what it is today, the best Eye Hospital in the World, where new technologies are invented and care is optimized. As a new academic Health System, in the economic environment of the 2008 economic crisis, which was particularly challenging for South Florida, we sure experienced bumps and growing pains. We faced issues related for example to access to our care for patients, as we were deploying our first Health Information System (HIS, from Epic), providing, and for the first time, campus-wide electronic medical record, and sophisticated digital revenue cycle management. We had to simplify navigating our complex physical landscape, managing the remarkably multicultural character of our community, and dealing with urgent crises like the earthquake of Port Au Prince that killed 300,000 Haitian friends in January of 2010, and to which we responded immediately with the establishment of a 250-bed field hospital that took care of in excess of 35,000 Haitian patients in acute distress, but we made it!

As UHealth has expanded to include more than 25 major outpatient clinic facilities in South Florida, including the new flagship Lennar Foundation Medical Center on the Coral Gables campus, an extraordinary Ambulatory Service Center, where he most sophisticated procedures can be performed safely, completely, bringing incredible value to the lives of our patients, and for practically all of them, without the need for hospital stay.

Hence, our clinical revenues have rapidly increased from less than $40 million per month in 2006 to in excess of $120 million per month in 2016, which represents one of the fastest compound annual growth rate for academic centers in the U.S, with net operating earnings of our practice, hospitals and clinics or more than $160 million yearly. As a private, but non-for-profit organization, all of our gains were reinvested in our charitable missions of research, education, and services to transform the lives in our community (see document on “Ten years of progress at the Miller School for more details). Uhealth provides UM with a robust opportunity that will continue to grow on the solid grounds we have created with the new generations of leaders to come. After ten years, ready for a new challenge, I retired from my roles of SVP for medical affairs, CEO of UHealth and Dean of the Miller School of Medicine.

The Next Era: Bringing the Best of American Medicine to Those Who Need It Most

After retiring from UM, I immediately started a holding company called Alzady International LLC registered in Florida, to perform consulting work, which took me initially to Tianjin in China near Beijing, where the Tiens Group had built a University and hospital, but without having in place a decent operator. It was an interesting and instructive experience, that taught me much about China’s higher education and healthcare businesses.

Then I was recruited to a project in Marrakech Morocco, a city and region that I have always cherished as I was growing up in Belgium. The PropCo called Nord Sud d’Investissements, or NSI, was in need of an operator capable of not only launching a hospital, managing operations, but also capable of helping with gathering the needed resources to acquire state of the art equipment. I had done all of that before, and thus decided to engage in the project. The Marrakech Healthcare City is a complex made of three facilities, an acute care hospital for all medical disciplines (144 beds, including intensive care unit beds and day hospital), which we named Hôpital Américain de Marrakech (American Hospital of Marrakech), a rehabilitation center (56 beds), and a convalescence center (33 beds), for a total of 233 beds for the campus. In order to manage the project, we had to launch a couple of companies, American Healthcare System Ltd., or AHS, registered in London UK, owned by Alzady International LLC (50%), and European Care Global (50%) of my partner, Anoup Treon. We then created the subsidiary company AHS Africa (UK) that AHS shares (50/50) with our two colleagues from NSI, Dr. Mohammed Azzeddine Alkhouaja, the genius mind who conceived this formidable MHCC medical complex which will inspire generations to come, and Fouad El Mountassir, the financial expert for NSI. AHS Africa owns 100% of the Moroccan operator company registered in Marrakech: American Healthcare System Morocco SARL, (ASHM).

American Healthcare System Morocco SARL

Marrakech is a gorgeous and vibrant city of South/Central Morocco, and one of the most sought-after city of Africa and the world by tourists. Planted between the Sahara-desert and the Chain of Mountains called Atlas, Marrakech has always benefited from a profusion of water, sunshine, and history. It was the oasis at the East end of the Sahara desert where merchants would come, sell and trade their goods originating from other regions of Africa. The Berber people, a dominant group in Morocco which civilization dates back 11,000 years ago, is well represented in Marrakech where they coexist happily with Sunny Muslims, Christians, a small Jewish community, and of course a large contingent of European tourists during the summer. The Koutoubia Mosque with its tall minaret, which is almost a millennium old, the Medina-a symbol of the City-, the Badiâ Palace, le Jardin Majorelle, and many more, all are famous and renown across the world.

Marrakech Healthcare City (MHCC) is located on the South side of Marrakech on Mohamed the Sixth Boulevard, in the newly constructed part of the city, with open South view to the Atlas Mountains, minutes from Marrakesh central and minutes from the newly renovated RAK airport of Marrakech. The project is inspired by the need to provide more comprehensive health care to patients and families both from within Marrakesh and surrounding metropolitan area (nearly 5 million people), as well as those from other parts of Morocco. It will also be popular with West African communities and Middle East communities, Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, especially. The project provides a full range of clinical services, from home care to quaternary care, as well as medical apartments and hotel accommodations for rehabilitation and recovery, to support patient throughput, convalescence and family accommodation. The project is a one of a kind model. The acute care hospital is designed with the highest international standards and is constructed to allow for maximum flexibility for capacity to evolve as do clinical and treatment requirements. MHCC is the first of ten facilities planned in a system that will span Morocco and other locations internationally on the West Coast of Africa. The project is nearing completion with building final touches and state of the art equipment installation planned for the beginning of 2019.

MHCC Investors The project is funded (~$60,000,000) in largest part by private Moroccan investors, and also by Tasweek, the real estate division of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority – ADIA. ADIA is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Tasweek was purchased by UAE Tabarak Investments, a premier investment firm for the Emirates, at the beginning of 2018. Instructively, while Tasweek had several major properties around the world, the one that was showcased for the news story was the picture of MHCC. This investment is seen as strategic in terms of a novel and productive real estate investment, as well as a socially responsible contribution to the government of Morocco in its efforts to provide its citizens with heightened health care, as now demanded by the growing middle class of Morocco. The Hôpital Américain of Marrakech (HAM) is the central piece of the project, an acute care general hospital designed and constructed in full compliance with international design and construction standards.

The acute care hospital facility (HAM, 144 beds) contains the following departments:

1. Emergency department (10 beds), Intensive Care Units including Surgical (8 beds), Medical (8 beds) and Cardiac (4 beds),

2. Surgery Theater capacity: nine fully surgery rooms (SR) equipped with cutting-edge technology, each room is spacious and programmed for flexibility to meet clinical requirements and accommodate the latest technology of a quaternary hospital (Transplants, Open-Heart, Orthopedic/Trauma, Complex Cancers, etc.). Indeed, the SR suite is designed with the complement of technologies to fulfill requirements for orthopedics, neurological surgery, general surgery, cardiac, transplant and other specialties in mind. The suite can actually be programmed to meet any clinical program. In addition, two hybrid Surgery/Catheterization rooms are available and fully equipped for cardiac (coronary, valve, and other structural cardiology procedures, and including electrophysiology suite), interventional radiology (including interventional oncology and vascular procedures),

3. In addition to these eleven multi-purpose and hybrid rooms, HAM harbors additional specialty procedure rooms:

a.Emergency procedure rooms

b.Ophthalmology procedure rooms equipped with microscopy and lasers

c.Endoscopy procedure suite (six rooms)

d.Dental procedure theatre (eight chairs)

e.A lithotripsy procedure room

f.Pre- and post-op fully equipped areas

g.State of the art Central Supply and Sterilization systems

h.Breast biopsy procedure rooms

i.Advanced systems to support robotic surgeries

j.A dialysis suite for patients with end-stage renal failure

4. The Diagnosis Center with full-scale multi-modal imaging services supported by GE imaging most advanced equipment (MRI, CT-Scan, PET-scan, Ultra-Sound and Echocardiography equipment). Full scale laboratory and pathology suite

5. Medical and surgical inpatient units (wards) with flexibility to accommodate single beds (16 suites and 44 spacious patient rooms, 104 beds in total)

6. Day hospital, 10 beds

7. Outpatient clinic

8. A state-of-the-art Sterilization Center

9. A comprehensive Pharmacy in-patient and out-patient services

10. Administration suites (admissions, C-suite, revenue cycle)

11. Patient and staff support areas including restaurants and other relaxation area that have been carefully crafted for ultimate patient and staff experience as well as cost-effectiveness.

The Rehabilitation Center is a unique condo suite (The Plaza, 56 condos) and treatmnent complex with the following amenities:

• The Rehabilitation Plaza: the condo suite, with individual single, double and triple room suites, all with private pools and access to a 125 meter infinity pool. Comprehensive rehabilitation and recovery services are provided in-suite by our experts. All apartments fully equipped for acute care (oxygen, medical equipment with the most advanced monitoring and procedural equipment, electrical requirements including generator supported and gases). Exceptional nutrition services and patient family support are readily available. The 56 suites have been built with full flexibility to accommodate future programming needs. The modular design allows for easy reconfiguration and reprogramming. Resuscitation programs and advanced cardiac life support procedures can be delivered in each condo as effectively as in the acute care hospital.

• A stem cell institute, for transplantation of autologous and allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells in order to help patients in their rejuvenation and recovery journey. All techniques that we used have been tested for safety and efficacy under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Investigational New Drug protocols (IND). These are unique transplantation strategies to care for individuals with a myriad of illnesses that did not have a successful treatment before, and including damaging conditions due to aging (age-related frailty), pulmonary fibrosis, Alzheimer, etc. The institute will also provide bone marrow transplant for cancer patients (BMT, with allogeneic and autologous transplants). Aesthetic medicine stem cell procedures will also be readily available.

• The Eye Institute, we are contemplating the recruitment of a team from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (BPEI) ranked number one in the US for the 18th time, more times than all other US eye programs together since the publication began the survey 28 years ago. Indeed, BPEI is the Best-in-Ophthalmology according to U.S News & World Report in its 2018-19 Best Hospitals edition. It is the 16th time in the row that Bascom Palmer has been named No. 1. And now, we are planning for BPEI to open its first satellite facility ever in the world at the HAM in Morocco. This expansion will create the best opportunity for people of Marrakech, Morocco, West Africa, and the entire continent of Africa, to access the top eye doctors, nurses and programs in eye care. There is much eye/vision problems encountered in the region and having the best experts right there in Marrakech will be invaluable to the population.

• The Aesthetic Institute, Aesthetic medicine, Botox, fillers and all other top aesthetic procedures will be delivered by the best US, European and Moroccan experts, including stem cells and will also be available throughout the campus. Certified dietetic experts will manage excess weight challenges and optimize individual nutrition across campus, coupled with a strong bariatric surgical program. Moroccan Hammam care for women and men will be provided in the Convalescence Center, as well as hair styling and a complete complement of skin care.

1. Rehabilitation Programs, Physical therapy (kinesitherapie in French) will be ubiquitous across MHCC, and embedded in care delivery together with occupational therapy throughout the medical center for the management of pain and other functional rehabilitation needs. Sports medicine/orthopedic facilities including interventional, post-op and a battery of musculoskeletal rehabilitation programs. Neuro-rehabilitation is also cutting edge with robotic and hydrotherapy programs (Thalassotherapy). Cardio-rehabilitation programs will also be provided aiming for functional recovery for patients with cardiac disorders leading to heart failure, including stem cell programs and promotion of physical exercise to restore metabolic and cardiovascular homeostasis.

2. The Detoxification Center, suites can also be used by patients for detoxification from alcohol and drugs, and all needed programs related to psychiatry and behavioral sciences are readily available to support patients and their families. Patients will learn new and healthy lifestyle that will transform their lives and enrich their daily routines. They can also be ideal as weight management units and will be fully supported by our physical conditioning and bariatric programs, as well as for the treatment of other metabolic conditions.

The Convalescence and Ambulatory Care Center is a Health and Wellness boutique facility with 33 rooms single bed, designed with a beautiful Moroccan flair. It is a unique blend of hospitality and patient support for pre-hospitalization and post-hospitalization requirements. The hotel provides a beautiful and healing environment for active treatment, convalescence and recovery. Rooms and support spaces are equipped to serve the clinical needs of patients, in a peaceful and calming environment for the soul. Gardens and pools as well as public spaces are also supportive of the healing process, including the infinity pool, resistance-exercise equipment, aerobic exercise circuit and Garden-of-all-Senses, a proprietary program that evaluates the five senses of patients, and help them recover functionality when deficient, using rejuvenation, brain plasticity and education tools.

• A mother and child suite has been designed for full-scale obstetrics care, with opportunity for performance of maternal fetal medicine, neonatal intensive care and pediatric clinics with units outside of the main hospital to create an ideal environment for new mothers and their children. It is anticipated that children will be able to receive the full scale of care, including neonatology, surgeries for congenital malformations (cardiac for example) and cancer manifestations (see below).

• A comprehensive cancer institute designed for total-team-care between oncological surgeons, radiation therapists, medical oncologists, tumor boards, and all connective disciplines including specialized radiology, pathology, physical therapy, psychology, mindfulness, occupational therapy, esthetic and plastic surgery, and all most advanced technologies for cutting edge but also holistic cancer care, and including palliative care. We treat not just the tumor, but the entire person aiming for a cure. Patients will have direct access to chemotherapy suites and chairs (24 in total), radiation therapy -Varian Truebeam for linear accelerator radiation treatment- for in- and out-patients. Teamwork approach, evidence based medicine and holistic will be at the epicenter of our care, and of our cancer care in particular.

• A woman health center will provide women with a unique complement of diagnostic procedure and care that includes prevention for all illnesses and in particular cancers. Mammography suite with ultrasound testing and biopsy procedure will be available in a woman-only environment of safety, confidentiality and spirituality.

The MHCC Campus: HAM, Rehabilitation Complex and Convalescence and Ambulatory Care Complex, are all located on the same spacious but practical campus in very close proximity from each other, with both underground and exterior connectors, allowing for the clinical and hospitality teams to partner and maximize patient experience and throughput across different levels of acuity. Our teams will provide the full spectrum of services required to maximize outcome and quality of experiences for all patients and families. In all three settings, accommodations have been made for availability of advanced level of nursing care support, including the ability of nurses with advanced specialized degrees to round on post-acute patients who have requirements for ongoing longer-term care. The three facilities will function as "communicating vessels", whereby the emphasis on medicine and care, together with great hospitality, is maximum all across MHCC, while diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are substantial at HAM while emphasis on rehabilitation, recovery and convalescence are maximum at the Plaza and Convalescence Centers, but all three units function in fully integrated fashion to create world class care together with world class hospitality.

This model of care will support reduced length of stay in the hospital, reduced re-hospitalizations and allows for the management team to reduce cost of care effectively while maximizing quality of care and the quality of the patient experience. Our business plan is based on 34% patients coming from Morocco, and 66% patients who will travel from the Middle-East and West Africa to access such top level of clinical medicine (Travel Medicine). We already have agreements with many governments who plan to send us their patients. Hence, our triple-prong approach to delivering care, HAM, Rehabilitation and Convalescence, together with our outpatient care capacity and home care capacity, will contribute to the delivery of very high quality care but also highly cost-effective care at the MHCC.

Furthermore, we are gearing up to create advanced home care to facilitate the return of patients to the environment of their own home, and also sometimes hotels in the context of travel medicine, before or on their way to returning home. Hence, we are developing opportunities for patients to receive IV antibiotics or chemotherapy, peritoneal dialysis for patients with advanced kidney failure, and all forms of rehabilitation. For some patients, visit to the hospital might be too onerous either financially or physically. For these patients, our American Healthcare System Foundation will support the purchase of mobile units to go in the Atlas mountains and other underserved regions of Morocco to deliver primary and other essential care (dental and eye care, blood pressure management, vaccination, etc.).

Our American Healthcare System (AHS) Team (UK) Ltd.

Dr. Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., President

“Dr. Goldschmidt is an accomplished physician, professor, healthcare leader, and medical researcher.”

• Pascal Goldschmidt is an accomplished physician (cardiologist), professor, academic healthcare leader, and medical researcher. He has served as a Tenured Professor at three prestigious institutions, Duke University School of Medicine, Ohio State University (OSU) and University of Miami. He was Center Director at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (then OSU), Chief of Cardiology at OSU then at Duke, and Chairman of Medicine at Duke.

• In 2006, he became Dean of the Miller School of Medicine and Founder/CEO of UHealth, the University of Miami Health System. Dr. Goldschmidt and his team expanded UHealth to include the medical practice, three hospitals, and major outpatient clinic facilities along both coasts of South Florida. Clinical revenues increased three-fold over a ten-year period, which represented one of the fastest compound annual growth rate for academic medical centers in the USA.

• During his tenure at the University of Miami, the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine rose up 13 positions (from 51 to 38 out of 177 United States Medical Schools) in the national rankings of research medical schools based on grants received from the National Institutes of Health, thus establishing this School as the highest-ranked medical school in Florida.

• To achieve this, Dr. Goldschmidt established new Institutes and Centers focused on team science and big data that brought in groundbreaking new knowledge, jobs, millions of dollars in research funding, and poised the Miller School and UHealth for continued excellence.

• Dr. Goldschmidt has a long list of honors and awards, beginning in 1980 with his graduation as a medical doctor and Valedictorian of Class of 225 from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. The list of his patents, publications, articles and abstracts numbers more than 500. His 250 invited lectureships and speaking engagements are testimony to his professional expertise.

• In 2018, Pascal (Alzady International LLC) joined Anoup Treon (European Care Global Ltd) to form AHS Ltd in the UK. AHS is focused on healthcare management, operations, and the development academic healthcare education, in Africa and beyond.

Anoup Treon, Chairman

“Anoup is a multi-skilled entrepreneur with experience both in corporate finance/merchant banking, and managing large operating entities”.

• Anoup Treon graduated with a degree in Finance and Economics. He became a qualified chartered accountant in 1980, and has 8 years’ experience in merchant banking as an executive, which gave him considerable experience in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, flotations and fund raising before he embarked on his own entrepreneurial career.

• Indeed, Anoup Treon is an entrepreneur with a professional background. In 1988 till 1990 he provided strategic consultancy services (whilst identifying commercial opportunities) to corporates seeking development funding. Then in the period 1990-2012, he stablished four start-ups (founder, Chairman & CEO) in the healthcare sector.

• Healthsave was established in 1990. Healthsave created an innovative private medical insurance scheme for corporates (eliminated claim forms and introduced managed care-efficient management of claims). In 1994, the company was sold to a listed entity having reached £4m premium income, after a successful launch in a market dominated by major insurers.

• In 1997 he left Healthsave to establish Union Healthcare and in the period May 1998 to December 1996, Healthsave acquired 50 elderly care homes (turnover £51m, 2,000 beds, 2,000 employees), and became the 7th largest care home operator in the UK.

• In 2000 he established *European Care Group (ECUK). In the period 2001 to 2010 ECUK acquired £500m of care homes (2/3rds of the freehold were owned by the group; all the care homes were operated by the group) and became the fifth largest care home operator in the UK with some £130m turnover, 4,500 residents & 4,500 employees.

• In 2009 he established **European Care Global Ltd (ECG) which acquired the ECUK rights outside the UK with the objective of creating senior healthcare services in the emerging markets. In 2016, ECG established European Care Global QHCI Ltd (ECGQ), a joint venture between the executives of QHCI healthcare consultants & ECG. ECGQ’s focus was the provision of hospital services in the emerging markets.

• Anoup has varied business interests and his skill set spans from financial engineering, corporate finance, start-ups, leading on strategy or growth businesses, and operating large scale groups with focus on establishing robust corporate infra structures.

TENURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI:

Ten Years of Progress at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and UHealth*:

A Report from Dean Emeritus Pascal J. Goldschmidt

The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine made phenomenal advances during the 2006-2016 decade. These were tough years during which the nation endured the worst recession crisis since the Great Depression. Despite the challenges, the medical school’s mission of transforming lives through research, education, and service thrived and soared to new heights. This success was a result of the efforts of the groundbreaking work of the talented faculty, staff, and students at the Miller School and UHealth – the new University of Miami Health System since 2007. This progress was powered, in part, by extraordinary gifts from donors, such as the Miller family, whose generosity represents an investment in higher education and health care beyond $220 million, as well as thousands of other benefactors who contributed gifts of all amounts.

Additionally, the Miller School rose up to 13 positions (from 51 to 38 out of 130 U.S.-M.S.) in the national rankings of medical schools based on research grants received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). That gain is particularly significant, considering the ongoing reductions in NIH funding that has caused many medical schools to fall in the rankings, especially for schools that did not rank in the top fifty in 2006. NIH grants, as well as other sources of funding, are vital for advancing research that leads to a greater understanding of a wide variety of diseases and public health issues. According to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, the Miller School has increased its NIH funding by an average of $20,000,000.00 per year since 2006, thus establishing our School as the highest-ranked research medical school in Florida. The USNews and World Report has similarly heightened the rankings of the Miller School from 56 (2006) to 44 (2015) amongst research medical schools.

These are accomplishments that have opened the door for a great future. This document highlights some of the incredible progress we have made over the past ten years – as a Health System and as a Medical School with new Institutes and Centers that have brought in groundbreaking new knowledge, jobs, millions in research funding, and leave us poised to become one of the best medical school and health system in our great nation and beyond.

New Institutes and Centers

1. The John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics was created to give our patients, physician-scientists and researchers access to the latest, cutting-edge technologies to identify genes involved in human diseases for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illness. These technologies are essential for the transformation of our research, team science, big data and precision medicine efforts in a myriad of scientific disciplines. The Institute was officially established in 2009 with a generous, $20 million gift from a generous donor, after whom the Institute is named. Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., is the Founding Director of the Hussman Institute and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genetics, and her husband, Jeffery M. Vance, M.D., Ph.D., professor of human genetics was the Founding Chair of The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics. The department was created in 2006 to provide support and the necessary genetic academic platform to foster the work of hundreds of world-renowned faculty, committed staff, and trainees who are experts in this essential discipline. Under the leadership of current Chair Stephan Zuchner, M.D., Ph.D., the department continues to excel in all aspects of human genetic research. A leader in research breakthroughs, the Hussman Institute has received over $60 million in support from the state of Florida and has been awarded more than $200 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health.

2. The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) was established to spearhead the development of new, regenerative therapies, using primarily bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, a clinical strategy that was approved by the FDA and significantly funded by the NIH. The goal is to provide solutions for debilitating or incurable disorders that currently lack effective treatments. ISCI has received several substantial gifts from generous donors to further research efforts in stem cell therapies, which totaled $55 million. ISCI also received more than $100 million in NIH grants and created 100 new jobs at the Miller School. Joshua M. Hare, M.D., was recruited from The Johns Hopkins University as Founding Director of ISCI and is also a professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology, the Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine, Chief Sciences Officer, and Senior Associate Dean for Experimental and Cellular Therapeutics. Dr. Hare is known for his pioneering work in the area of myocardial repair with bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, and more recently for the first intervention that effectively improves “aging frailty”, which is a dreadful condition associated with advancing age. ISCI’s stem cell work is now benefiting more than 12 medical disciplines and their illnesses.

3. The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute of the University of Miami (BioNIUM) was established at the Miller School with a leadership gift of $7.5 million from a generous donor. BioNIUM serves as a collaborative institute that links investigators from the Miller School with colleagues from the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering to explore and develop novel applications of biomedical nanotechnology, by allowing chemists, engineers, physicists, and physicians to combine their unique talents to find new tools for diagnosis and treatment of complex disease. BioNIUM has created new jobs and has received more than $70 million in grants. Critical to the establishment of BioNIUM was the recruitment of Richard J. Cote, M.D., Founding Director of BioNIUM and Joseph R. Coulter Chair of the Department of Pathology, as well as Sylvia Daunert, Ph.D., Pharm.D., Associate Founding Director of BioNIUM and Professor and Lucille P. Markey Chairwoman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Ram H. Datar, Ph.D., Co-Founding Director of BioNIUM.

4. UM was named for the first time as one of only 20 NIH-designated Centers for AIDS Research and is supported by a new $22 million grant from the NIH. In addition, state funding allowed us to establish the AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases Institute (AEIDI). The AEIDI has received $3 million from the state of Florida to find a vaccine and cure for HIV. The Institute also researches new emerging epidemics, such as Ebola and Zika viruses. Savita Pahwa, M.D., professor of microbiology and immunology and pediatrics, serves as the Founding Director of the Miami Center for AIDS Research and as the Director of the Laboratory Sciences Core of the Miami CFAR, and Mario Stevenson, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases within the Department of Medicine, is the co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research and Founding Director of AEIDI.

5. The first NIH-designated Clinical and Translational Science Institute at UM (CTSI) was established with an award of $20 million from the NIH, the largest in the history of UM research. It has allowed us to transform our clinical research education and infrastructure, giving emphasis to health disparities, diversity, and minority-engaged research. The CTSI has led to extraordinary projects that have made a real difference in the health opportunities for our South Florida community. The breadth of the impact ranges from educational activities that led to Florida being the 17th state to have a certification process for community health workers and research initiatives such as the development of a tool (URIDE) to run feasibility analysis for clinical trials by directly searching de-identified data from UHealth Electronic Health Records. José Szapocznik, Ph.D., former Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences, and now a senior advisor for Public Health Science Program Development, was the Founding Principal Investigator of the CTSI grant. Ralph L. Sacco, M.D., M.S., Chairman of the Department of Neurology, Olemberg Family Chair in Neurological Disorders, and Leonard M. Miller Professor of Neurology, Epidemiology and Public Health Sciences, Human Genetics, and Neurosurgery, has taken on the leadership of the NIH CTSI grant and is the New Director of the CTSI.

6. The UHealth Ear Institute has been transformed by a move to its new facility to become a global center for all hearing loss conditions, evaluations, and treatments, as well as a primary location for continuing medical education and NIH research. The Institute, led by Fred F. Telischi, M.D., professor of otolaryngology, neurological surgery and biomedical engineering, the James R. Chandler Chair in Otolaryngology, and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, aims to advance the research and clinical dimensions relating to hearing disorders, from complete deafness to milder forms of hearing loss. A gift of a generous donor established The Barton G. Kids Hear Now Cochlear Implant Family Resource Center, the nation’s premier cochlear implant support program. The Institute also received $3.5 million from Miami-Dade County. The Department of Otolaryngology has risen into the top 15 ranking in NIH funding, with unique expertise in genetics of hearing disorders lead by Dr. Xue Zhong Liu, M.D.-Ph.D. (see below).

7. Now an integral part of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Jay Weiss Institute for Health Equity was established in memory of philanthropist Jay Weiss, the Founding Chair of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Board of Governors and UM Board of Trustee member, who had a major impact on improving the health of the underprivileged members of our community. The Institute focuses on serving the uninsured population of South Florida with research, services, and education. The Institute’s emphasis is on advocacy, detection of illnesses, and early treatment, especially for cancers, where health inequities are among the worst. Erin Kobetz, Ph.D., M.P.H., Senior Associate Dean for Health Disparity, Associate Director for Disparities and Community Outreach at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Program Director for Community Engagement at the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), is the Director of the Jay Weiss Institute, and her team are funded by more than $30 million in NIH grants.

8. The Global Institute for Community Health and Development, which has received more than $10 million in gifts, is led by Barth Green, M.D., former Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery, who is also professor of neurological surgery, neurology, orthopaedics, and rehabilitation medicine, Co-Founder of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and Executive Dean for Global Health and Community Service. The Institute supports not only South Florida but also communities around the world. The Miller School of Medicine was able to respond within 24 hours after a massive earthquake that rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12, 2010. Our response included the establishment of a 250-bed field hospital in Port-au-Prince, first of its kind for an American Academic Healthcare System, which has treated more than 30,000 patients, with the help of Project Medishare, an NGO created by Dr. Green, and volunteers from across the United States. More than six years later, Project Medishare and Miller School of Medicine physicians and surgeons are still providing trauma care at the Bernard Mevs Trauma and Critical Care Hospital in Haiti’s capital and providing public health services in Haiti’s Central Plateau region. Our intervention was recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) with a Special Award for Exceptional Service: “The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine laid the foundation for what would become one of the most successful post-disaster emergency medical responses ever mounted by a university.” (See http://tinyurl.com/z8tue2o.) More recently, the Global Institute has participated in relief operations following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed hundreds in Ecuador earlier this year.

9. Miami Transplant Institute was established in 2006 by the Miller School of Medicine, as a joint program between the Miller School and Jackson Memorial County Hospital, and the Founding Director was Andrew Tzakis. The MTI is now one of the world’s premier transplant centers, with top programs in liver, kidney, pancreas, and multiorgan transplants and is rapidly expanding in heart and lung transplants. The Institute is now led by Director Rodrigo Vianna, M.D., professor of surgery and Chief of Liver and Gastrointestinal Transplant. The MTI has trained some of the finest transplant surgeons in the United States and the world, and is dedicated to seeing the day when transplants can be safely conducted for all those who need it, and increasingly without the need for lifelong, anti-rejection drugs. Today in 2019, our transplant program ranks second overall in the USA.

10. The Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute has received in excess of $15 million in gifts from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation and other philanthropists and more than $15 million in NIH funding to advance research on age-related cognitive decline. The McKnight Brain Institute is led by Clinton Wright, M.D., associate professor of neurology, epidemiology and public health sciences, and neuroscience, Scientific Director of the Institute, holder of the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging, and Chief of the Division of Cognitive Disorders, and Ralph L. Sacco, M.D., Chair of the Department of Neurology, Executive Director of the Institute, Olemberg Family Chair in Neurological Disorders, and Leonard M. Miller Professor of Neurology, Epidemiology and Public Health Sciences, Human Genetics, and Neurosurgery. Dr. Sacco was also the first neurologist to serve as the National President of the American Heart Association from 2010-2011. A key leader in the field of stroke, he currently serves as President of the American Academy of Neurology and has been a member of the World Stroke Organization since 2008. The McKnight Brain Institute excels in advancing fundamental and clinical research, as well as patient care, for individuals suffering from a decline in cognitive function as a result of aging or in the context of various disorders.

11. The Center for Therapeutic Innovation was founded by Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D., member of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Associate Dean for therapeutic innovation and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, to advance knowledge and therapeutics, especially relating to small molecules, to prevent, detect, and treat neurological and psychiatric disorders as well as cancer and certain rare genetic disorders. With more than $15 million in federal funding, this Center has made remarkable advances in the epigenetics and therapeutics of a number of serious human conditions.

12. The Peggy and Harold Katz Family Drug Discovery Center was directed initially by Jochen Reiser, M.D., Ph.D., a world-renowned leader in the field of kidney disease who made groundbreaking contributions on the impact of suPAR in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and on other mechanisms of chronic kidney diseases, Dr. Reiser went on to become Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Rush University in Chicago. Now the Center is led by Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and holder of the Peggy and Harold Katz Family Chair. The Center was established by a $5 million gift from a generous donor. The Center has received more than $15M in grants from the NIH and corporations to pursue research on kidney disease, diabetes, and other conditions affecting renal function and is focused on developing therapeutics to prevent and treat kidney diseases.

13. The Center for Communication Sciences and Disorders was established by Xue Zhong Liu, M.D., Ph.D., Leonard M. Miller Professor of Otolaryngology, Human Genetics, Biochemistry, and Pediatrics; Director of Miami Otogenetic Program; Founding Director of the Center for Communication Sciences and Disorders; and Vice Chair of Research for the ENT Department. Dr. Liu has discovered more genes involved in hearing disorders than anyone else in the world. Dr. Liu has brought in more than $10 million in NIH grants. He created the Center to bring together clinicians, scientists, and educators with expertise in sensory sciences and disorders. Defects in hearing and the other senses often signal the onset of life-threatening illnesses, so early detection of these defects can help prevent neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

14. The UHealth Sports Performance and Wellness Institute is a multidisciplinary effort that delivers the best in evidence-based medicine, rehabilitation, and exercise physiology to maximize optimized human performance, injury care, and injury prevention for athletically active individuals. The Institute conducts research into the use of stem cell therapy and genetic markers in the prevention and rehabilitation of sports injuries. The Institute was established and is led by Founding Director Lee Kaplan, M.D., professor of orthopaedics, Chief of UHealth Sports Medicine Division in the Department of Orthopaedics, and Medical Director and Head Team Physician for UM Athletics and the Miami Marlins. The Institute has secured a $5 million gift from the Don Soffer Family for stem cell research in sports medicine and a $2 million gift from Petra and Stephen A. Levin to endow the Chair of the UHealth Sports Performance and Wellness Institute attributed to Dr. KAPLAN.

15. The Crohn and Colitis Center is a clinical and research center that aims at bringing new therapies to patients, children and adults, who are affected by these dreadful ailments. With Founding Director Maria Abreu, M.D., the Center provides a platform to accelerate promising research from the laboratory to the beside. Powered by generous gifts, the physician-scientists of the Center strive to develop the next wave of leading-edge therapies in the crusade against Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). The Center aims to discover how the microbiome interacts with the gut and the innate immune system to contribute to IBD, how the genetics of IBD varies in minorities, how the genetics of gut bacteria (microbiome) impact IBD, how quorum sensing relates to IBD, and, with the partnership of the Hussman Institute for human Genomics at UM, how individual’s genetic variation in IBD, can lead to personalized medicine.

While these new Centers and Institutes, together with several future and developing centers and institutes, such as the Miami Brain Tumor Initiative of Ricardo Komotar, the Lung Research Institute of Marilyn Glassberg, the Urology Institute of Dipen Parekh, the Pain Management Center of David Lubarsky, the Schiff Liver Center of Eugene Schiff and Paul Martin, the Miami Heart Research Institute of Dr. Jeffery Goldberger, have all become pillars of our research and clinical enterprise at the Miller School, they are powered by faculty, staff and students of our Discovery (Basic) Science Departments and Clinical Departments. We have created two new Departments, one at the intersection of research and clinical sciences, the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics lead by Stephan Zuchner, M.D.-Ph.D, and the other is the brand new Department of Interventional Radiology, first such department of its kind in the U.S., lead by Govindarajan -Raj- Narayanan, M.D.

Furthermore, while these Institutes, Centers and Departments were created and expanded, during the same decade, the Centers and Institutes that existed before 2006 have expanded and flourished. These include:

1. Bascom Palmer Eye Institute was named the number one eye hospital nationwide, for a remarkable 14th year in a row, and 16 in total, which is more than any other U.S. eye center, and actually more times than all U.S. eye centers together. Led by Eduardo C. Alfonso, M.D., the Kathleen and Stanley J. Glaser Chair in Ophthalmology, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (BPEI), who has been primarily responsible for leading the uncontested establishment BPEI as the premier eye institute in the world, the BPEI is increasingly bringing its world-class care closer to patients. BPEI at Naples has opened in October 2015, and a dedication ceremony was held in 2016 for the Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid Orbital Vision Research Center, which was established thanks to a generous $10 million gift from the Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid family. The BPEI has received more than $100 million in gifts from the Ophthalmology Research Foundation and generous patients.

2. Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, led by Director Stephen Nimer, M.D., was created in 1986 with an initial gift of $27.5 million from Harcourt Sylvester, Jr., made in honor of his parents, through the Harcourt M. and Virginia W. Sylvester Foundation. This gift was quickly followed by an additional $5 million gift that brought the total founding donation to $32.5 million. His daughters, Laura Sylvester and Jayne Malfitano, have continued their father’s legacy of support, contributing more than $16 million through the Sylvester Foundation for Sylvester’s growth and success. With the combined strength of more than 120 cancer researchers and 140 cancer specialists, Sylvester discovers, develops and delivers more targeted therapies leading to better outcomes for each patient. In 2015, Sylvester was named a Cancer Center of Excellence by the State of Florida, one of just four in the state and the only one in South Florida. This recognition of extraordinary patient care, research, and education is a key step in obtaining National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation as a comprehensive cancer center. Dr. Nimer and his team are engaged in cutting-edge research, education, and clinical care in such fields as precision medicine, genetics, epigenetics, and immune therapy.

3. The Diabetes Research Institute, led by Director Camillo Ricordi, M.D., is closer than ever to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes mellitus. The Institute, funded by more than $250 million from the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, is making amazing progress in the transplant of pancreatic, insulin-producing islet cells. A novel approach to mimic the native organ has been created using the patient’s own plasma as a biological scaffold to house these cells on the surface of the patient's omentum (a fat rich lining covering the abdominal organs). This technique, together with advances in the fields of immunology and stem cells, is likely to lead to the first cure for this devastating ailment.

4. The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, co-founded by Barth Green, M.D. and Nick Buoniconti more than 30 years ago, addresses one of the most daunting medical challenges: restoring function to a spinal cord that has been severed by injury. This research enterprise is led by Scientific Director Dalton Dietrich, Ph.D., Kinetic Concepts Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery, Senior Associate Dean for Discovery Science, and supported by 30 other world-class scientific investigators. It is funded by more than $115 million from the Buoniconti family and The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, whose President is Marc Buoniconti. The Miami Project is now performing human clinical trials on the impact of Schwann and other stem cells on paralysis. Its research progress has propelled The Miami Project to the top of the list of neuroscience institutes in the world.

5. The Batchelor Children’s Research Institute, and the Department of Pediatrics, led by Judy L. Schaechter, M.D., M.B.A., Chair, Department of Pediatrics, the George E. Batchelor Endowed Chair in Pediatrics, and Chief of Service at Holtz Children’s Hospital/Jackson Health System, and Daniel Armstrong, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and psychology, Director of the Mailman Center for Child Development, Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, the Institute is rapidly advancing the state of knowledge relating to child health, diseases, and brain development. The Institute and the Department’s extraordinary resources for the children of the South Florida region and beyond, have received nearly $40 million from the Batchelor Foundation.

6. The William Lehman Injury Research Center is an internationally recognized Miller School research program located at the Ryder Trauma Center of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, that was established to improve the treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation of traumatic injuries resulting from blunt trauma. The Center which is lead by Carl I. Schulman, M.D., M.S.P.H., is named in honor of the late Congressman William Lehman, who championed the cause of injury and prevention. He is also credited for the initial congressional mandate, issued in 1991, for the center to improve automobile safety through research and education.

7. The Wallace H. Coulter Center (WHCC)/U-Innovation/UM Life Science and Technology Park This program is a partnership between the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, UM and Developers who, like Wexford Science and Technology, saw the opportunity powered by the Miller School of Medicine growing and successful research, for Miami to develop as a major biomedical, bioengineering, technology platform at the tip of the Florida Peninsula. Here, the University of Miami is focused on turning translational research in biomedical science and engineering, into products and services by commercializing research projects that address unmet clinical needs and have market potential. Lead by Norma Kenyon, Ph.D., our team works with investigators to help them carry the project from a translational stage to a tangible product or service that impacts the public and their health. The success metrics for our center include either successful licensing to an established company or creation of new professionally managed and financed UM start-ups. Under Kenyon's leadership, U-Innovation went from producing one new company in eight years, to producing eight NewCos in one year, and celebrating our first successful IPO based on a discovery of Dr. Eckhard Podack. Wexford has built the first of five buildings that will constitute the entire LSTP.

Clinical Expansion

Since we established UHealth in 2007, with the purchase of our first acute care hospital for UM, University of Miami Hospital, powered by our University practice group, the University of Miami Medical Group (UMMG), and the medical science produced by the Miller School, we have improved the quality of the medicine we deliver on our campus and throughout South Florida. We were able, and for the first time in our history, to provide the full complement of care to our patients and within our own facilities, except for a few specialties, that, out of respect for our affiliation with the Jackson Health System, we continued to practice exclusively at Jackson Memorial Hospital. We have been transforming the University of Miami Hospital into a true academic teaching hospital, with outstanding physicians and nurses that provide unique opportunities for patients in distress due to a multitude of illnesses in the various specialties of: Cardiology, Otolaryngology, Urology, Orthopedics, Sports Medicine, Neurosurgery, Neurology, Emergency- Intensive- General- and Geriatric-Medicine and Surgery, Gastroenterology- Liver- Lung- Infectious Diseases- Endocrine- Rheumatology-Medicine, Gynecology, Vascular- Bariatric- Maxillofacial- and Reconstructive-Surgery, Psychiatry, Human Genetics, Dermatology, and for the sickest patients in need of Surgical and Medical Oncology care. All such disciplines are supported by outstanding connective disciplines such as Anesthesia, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pharmacology, Radiology, Interventional and Radiation Oncology, Rehabilitation Medicine, and Physical Therapy. Our UMMG physicians perform also state of the art medical and surgical services at the facilities of our two affiliate systems, Jackson and the Miami Veteran Administration Medical Center in multiple disciplines, including Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Trauma, and solid organ transplant, to name a few.

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, which is part of UHealth, has received a perfect score from the ASCO-QOPI (a program developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology), and a myriad of other awards attributed to top cancer centers in the U.S., provides patients with outcomes from most cancers that greatly surpass the national average. Other cancer hospital in the region had to upgrade their cancer care to compete with SCCC for patients. A recent article in The Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that Sylvester is one of 11 cancer hospitals nationally where patient outcomes exceed those of other academic and non-academic hospitals.

UHealth provides many benefits for the people of South Florida. At Sylvester, we are offering the only truly integrated, multidisciplinary cancer care in which medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, oncological surgeons, along with experts in many other disciplines, form tumor boards and collaborate to review diagnoses, select the best treatments and provide access to cutting-edge research opportunities.

Some 50 years ago, Ed Norton had the clairvoyance of starting a nascent clinical practice for the University with the establishment of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital. By delivering outstanding care, the Institute climbed rapidly in patient volumes and reputation to become what it is today, the best Eye Hospital in the World, where new technologies are invented and care is optimized.

As a young academic Health System, in the economic environment of the 21st Century, and especially in South Florida, we sure experienced bumps and growing pains, related for example to access to our care for patients, deploying our first Health IT (Epic), navigating our complex physical landscape, managing the remarkably multicultural character of our community, which we embrace and are so proud of, dealing with urgent crises like the earthquake of Port Au Prince that killed 300,000 Haitian friends in January of 2010, but we made it!

As UHealth has expanded to include a practice (UMMG), three hospitals (University of Miami Hospital, Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital, and University of Miami Hospital and Clinics), and more than 25 major outpatient clinic facilities along both coasts of South Florida, including the flagship Lennar Foundation Medical Center on the Coral Gables campus, our clinical revenues have rapidly increased from less than $40 million per month in 2006 to in excess of $120 million per month in 2016, which represents one of the fastest compound annual growth rate for academic centers in the U.S, with net operating earnings of our practice, hospitals and clinics or more than $160 million yearly, which we are reinvesting our resources in our charitable missions of research, education, and services to transform lives in our community.

Educational Progress

We have made tremendous strides in our educational programs during the past 10 years. We have renewed our accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and our primary training program at Jackson Memorial Hospital has once again become fully reaccredited, with an average cycle length (a marker of quality) of four to five years (best is five). All specialty programs at Jackson are now fully accredited with an average cycle length of 4.5 years, which is a remarkable improvement.

We created the first allopathic residency program in medicine and surgery in Palm Beach County, and the program is highly successful. We also have created an allopathic training program in emergency medicine that spans three hospitals: University of Miami Hospital, Jackson Memorial Hospital, and Holy Cross Hospital. We have launched a unique, four-year M.D./M.P.H. (Master’s in Public Health) program, in which more than 25 percent of our M.D. class is now enrolled. We have developed pathways to allow our students to differentiate themselves from their peers by acquiring expertise in specialized fields ranging from genomic medicine to social medicine and informatics.

Medical education at UM is more successful than ever, with nearly 9,000 applicants (up from 4,000 in 2006) and better than average scores on standardized tests. But, most importantly, we are producing graduates who demonstrate exceptional compassion for their patients and desire to support their community. Every year, our students organize nine health fairs through the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS), with support from faculty. These fairs span South Florida and represent the only opportunity for many of the attendees, who typically are uninsured or underinsured, to access primary and preventive care. Participants who require follow-up care are referred to federally qualified health centers or one of our free clinics, where our students see patients under the supervision of our faculty. Our students also work to help Floridians acquire health insurance on the exchange market.

The Michael Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education is located in the Don Soffer Clinical Research Center on the medical campus. The Gordon Center is advancing the field of measuring competence for a variety of health care providers, including medical students, nursing students, postgraduate trainees in medicine and nursing, emergency medical service providers, and military care providers. The Center has received more than $55 million in federal and state support and nearly $23 million in gifts. “Harvey,” the cardiopulmonary, patient simulator developed at UM by Dr. Michael Gordon continues to grow as a core tool for medical and nursing school training and evaluating, and is being sold around the world.

We are blessed with dedicated students who not only are outstanding academically but also are exceptionally compassionate toward their fellow humans.

Fundraising

We conducted the boldest fundraising campaign in the history of our school, raising more than our $1 billion target in 2015, ahead of schedule for Momentum2: The Breakthrough Campaign for the University of Miami. The proceeds of the campaign are helping to fund the construction of several buildings, including:

1. The Lennar Foundation Medical Center will be the home of UHealth Coral Gables and was made possible by a gift of $50 million from The Lennar Foundation. The building, a state-of-the-art ambulatory care facility, is scheduled to open in December 2016. Patients will have access to targeted cancer diagnostics and therapies from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center experts; specialized UHealth physicians will deliver men’s and women’s health, cardiology, sports medicine, and neurology services; and ophthalmology care will come from Bascom Palmer Eye Institute experts. This is UHealth opportunity to move into the future of medicine with care that is the most advanced in the world, delivered holistically to provide also the best patient experience associated with the delivery of minimally invasive, highly respectful and dignified care, no matter the complexity of illnesses and necessary procedures.

2. The Miller School of Medicine Center for Medical Education was made possible by a $50 million gift from the Miller family. The inspirational building will be a flexible, cutting-edge facility, which will help drive the development of educational innovation and position our curriculum for the next century by offering new and flexible learning environments

3. The Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center, a partnership between The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, UHealth, and the Jackson Health System, is financed by a $25 million gift from Christine E. Lynn to The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, along with Jackson General Obligation Bonds, issued by Miami-Dade County. The Center, which will house a 100-bed rehabilitation hospital, is scheduled to break ground in October 2016. Not only have we succeeded with our own share of the fundraising, but we also helped Jackson campaign for the $830 million in General Obligation Bonds that voters approved in 2013. This money is enabling the Jackson Health System to improve its existing facilities and to build new ones.

Conclusion

The past 10 years have seen daunting challenges, but also incredible progress. For our mission to become sustainable, the Miller School, UHealth and the University of Miami have had to make disciplined and difficult changes and sacrifices. All the while, we remained focused on our common purpose of transforming lives through teaching, research, and service, and on our UM values of Diversity, Integrity, Responsibility, Excellence, Compassion, Creativity and Teamwork (DIRECCT). Our common purpose was backed up by a comprehensive strategic plan create in 2006 and that was reviewed by substantial experts such as then President Donna Shalala, Ph.D., Harry Jacobson M.D., former Chancellor of Van Der Bilt University Health System, and by Ralph Snyderman M.D., former Chancellor of the Duke Health System, which we have accomplished diligently and with great discipline and tenacity. We aim to promote a culture of belonging, so rightly promoted by new UM President Julio Frenk. Our focus must be on how we can best participate in our community. We have created Women in Academic Medicine, the Diversity Council, and the Associate Dean position for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, with the support of our Faculty Council and Faculty Senate, because we firmly believe in the expansion of diversity and cultural sensitivity. Working together to shape our culture is an important part of our effort to become one of the best medical school and health system in our great nation and beyond.

After ten years of working closely together and producing increasingly great medical products and services, it is time to recognize what has been accomplished thanks to our amazing students, staff, faculty scientists and clinicians, and leadership of Dona Shalala and the UM Board of Trustees. As we evolve our leadership team and pass the baton to the remarkably competent and accomplished leaders, Dipen Parekh, M.D. and Henri Ford, M.D., it was important to pause and remember the first ten years of UHealth and the astonishing progress of our top tier Miller school of Medicine.