Edward D. Crandall, M.D. Department Chair

I am proud to present to you the Department of Medicine’s (DOM) Annual Report for the academic year 2007-2008. Not only is this report a celebration of the hard work and accomplishments of the DOM faculty, trainees and staff, but it also highlights the capacity for the DOM to make a difference with its tripartite mission of research, clinical care and educational programs. The Department continues to benefit on all these fronts from the exceptional leadership of our Vice Chairs and Associate Chairs. As always, outstanding faculty are key to our productivity and success. We recruited 27 new faculty to the Department during the academic year, further strengthening both our research and patient care programs.

As a research-intensive Department, we maintain our commitment to an aggressive basic science, translational and clinical research mission. Currently, faculty members in the Department hold research grants with annual expenditures approximating $45 million, of which $39 million are NIH-sponsored. These annual research grant expenditures represent about 35% of the total NIH funded research grant activities for the Keck School of Medicine. It is evident that our faculty have displayed considerable enterprise and initiative in establishing this excellent record. Our faculty continue to be ranked near the top nationally in NIH dollars per funded investigator ($0.9 million). Strategically, we strive to enhance our national and international prominence through sustained growth in research which will entail increasing the number of federally funded investigators and research space. These goals will require wise and creative use of available resources and continual acquisition of new resources.

As a Department that is as clinically intensive as it is research intensive, DOM continues to lead in the provision of clinical care in both the private and public venues of the USC Health Sciences Campus. The private practice has experienced steady growth since its beginnings in the 1980s, with charges more than doubling and ambulatory visits almost tripling over the past ten years. At this time, DOM accounts for over 50% of total LAC+USC Medical Center inpatient care and over 60% of General Hospital inpatient care, approximately 45% of admissions at USC/Norris Cancer Hospital, and 30% of admissions at USC University Hospital.

We continue our intensive investment in advancing educational programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Department faculty contribute extensively to medical student education in both the basic science and clinical clerkship years and directly supervise the training of more than 250 core and subspecialty residents annually. We review the curricula of medical students and residents each year and provide each group with a comprehensive and rich educational milieu. The Firm System continues as a proven method to provide a more consistent peer group of trainees and mentors, enabling faculty to more efficiently and effectively supervise the performance of residents and students, and providing a more consistent area of work assignment. Testimony to the success of these efforts is seen in our graduates’ rising American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) examination passing rates, filling all our residency positions through the National Resident Matching Program, and retention of USC medical school graduates. In our undergraduate medical education program, we have expanded the ambulatory training experiences for our third and fourth year medical students. Nearly 70 community-based internists have been recruited to mentor medical students in their offices, which will provide clinical experiences that more closely resemble those found in practice.

On behalf of the Department of Medicine, I offer my sincere thanks and congratulations to Department of Medicine faculty and staff as we complete another successful and challenging year. Their dedication to excellence and positive work ethic promises to sustain and enhance our ability to fulfill and grow our tripartite mission of research, education and patient care.

Edward D. Crandall, Ph.D., M.D.
Hastings Professor & Norris Chair
Department of Medicine