The State of HMS

On May 28, Dean Jeffrey Flier opened his 2010 State of the School address by demonstrating just how far the reach of HMS now extends. As part of his Alumni Day talk, Flier unveiled an HMS banner that bears the signatures of astronauts who rode the shuttle Atlantis into space last November— including Bobby Satcher, HMS ’90. The signed banner, Flier quipped, “represents the farthest reach HMS has ever had.”

All jokes aside, the School’s influence on national and international health-related matters was a recurrent theme during Flier’s remarks. After announcing that HMS had once again topped U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of graduate schools—a record unbroken since the annual list began in 1990—Flier highlighted several recent research discoveries at HMS and its affiliates. These included the finding by Michael Greenberg, chair of the Department of Neurobiology, of a process by which the genetic defect underlying Angelman syndrome may cause autism and mental retardation.

Flier also outlined work by Howard Hughes investigator Stephen Elledge, the Gregor Mendel professor of genetics and of medicine at HMS, that may help improve the understanding and treatment of influenza, as well as the role of David Reich, HMS associate professor of genetics, in the discovery that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern Europeans and Asians. These and other breakthroughs made by HMS investigators, said Flier, “are our best hope for easing the human suffering caused by disease.”

Discoveries are impressive, but determining ways to bring those findings from bench to bedside presents its own challenge. “One of my highest priorities is to see that laboratory discoveries made by our superb faculty are used as the basis of innovative patient therapies,” said Flier. Leading this charge is Bill Chin, the new executive dean for research.

In addition to his role in advancing translational research, Chin will help define new ways for academia and industry to interrelate while benefiting patients. Flier also stressed the potentially far-reaching influence of a revised School policy on conflicts of interest, currently in the works. “Harvard Medical School can set a standard for others to follow,” he said. “Our responsibility is to wield that influence with tremendous care.”

The dean also spoke of the challenges faced by many HMS students, both during medical school and after graduation. “Our students are better trained than ever before in medicine and the healing arts,” he said. “But I worry that too many are leaving HMS saddled with debt that will force them to choose lucrative fields over lower-paying public service roles.” To this end, he described several recent financial changes aimed at helping students and their families afford medical education, including a 14 percent increase of scholarship funding by the School’s Middle Income Financial Aid Initiative and loan forgiveness for 45 students.

Flier hopes such changes will inspire and enable more graduates to enter lower-paying fields like primarycare. He shared one primary-care success story, that of Crimson Care, a pilot initiative in which faculty preceptors work with students who are eager to learn how to administer outpatient care for patients who lack a primary provider.

The talk closed with a discussion of the School’s most literal global impact. Flier described the HMS–Portugal program in translational research, as well as the work of Quad and affiliated-hospital faculty and researchers in locations such as Haiti, Rwanda, Malawi, Peru, Central America and China. “If there is one thing that fills me with awe,” Flier concluded, “it is the powerful and immediate influence we have upon this country and the world.”