Written by Dr. Joseph A. Flaherty, Dean and Chancellor
Isn’t it amazing how, for centuries, we humans have taken pleasure in the simple things – sunrise, sunset, music, getting together with people we know and having communal gatherings? Why is this true, perhaps to a greater extent today than ever? It’s because these simple pleasures are constants in a world of fast-paced change. It’s all happening so fast.
And it’s happening at Ross University School of Medicine (Ross), too, all for the benefit of our students. In the short 23 months since I’ve been here, we’ve integrated the departments of Integrated Medical Education and Introduction to Clinical Medicine into the Department of Clinical Medicine, to ensure that students have the best preparation in taking patient histories and performing clinical exams. Another change is that with the new class in May we will commence our 2-track curriculum with the goal of increasing students’ options and chances for success. One will be four semesters in length and the other will be five. The two tracks will constitute the same program of study.
We have also made tremendous gains in the clinical assignments of our students. Medicine and the study of medicine have changed incredibly since I started. In those days I was wearing a short, starched coat given to me by my family doctor. I went to medical school in hopes of becoming a family doctor in a small town, like the one I grew up in, in rural Illinois. Today’s students have hopes and dreams, too. They, too, want to help people and to take care of families.
What never changes is our overriding mission at Ross to take care of students and to help them achieve their goals. This is the constancy; this is what keeps us grounded and focused as we move forward with initiatives to benefit our students.
After the years of study in classrooms and labs, the next great step in the journey of becoming a physician and the culmination of all the hard work and dedication is obtaining a residency match. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the more than 700 Ross students this year who have matched at excellent teaching hospitals, from private to community, to university hospital systems.
I am proud to say that Ross students have matched at some of the most prestigious hospitals in the U.S. and Canada: the Mayo Clinic, Albert Einstein Medical Center in N.Y., Boston University Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Emory University Hospital in Georgia, Kern Medical Center in California, University of Chicago Medical Center, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Toronto. This is a tremendous achievement. We are one school and one team, and we all take pride in our students’ successes. I want to acknowledge hard work of our outstanding faculty, devoted staff, and members of my Cabinet, who all contributed to providing the best medical education we can. That will never change.
Joseph A. Flaherty, MD is dean and chancellor of Ross University School of Medicine.