2008 Annual Report

At the Forefront of Medicine

This annual review highlights our progress in the major mission areas across the Medical Center. As in the past, we continue to be guided and strengthened by our values and commitment to these missions: scientific discovery, educating tomorrow's leaders, compassion for our community and providing care that only we can offer.

This past year represents a milestone at the University of Chicago Medical Center, a progressively integrated enterprise that is uniting all of the University's activities in biology and medicine under a single governance and management structure. In FY08, an important step was taken; we combined the Biological Sciences Division and clinical activities. Now, the University of Chicago Medical Center--in governance, day-to-day operations and finance--functions as an integrated whole. This gives us a distinct advantage over most academic medical centers that lack such a unified governance model.

Yet in this time of achievement and progress, we, like our peer institutions, are facing today's economic downturn and its effects on healthcare and education. Without change, the recession and fragmented health care system will erode the long-term viability of our institution. At the end of 2008, we made the difficult decision to reorganize our scarce resources to concentrate on what we do uniquely well. Even while pursuing significant cost reductions, we simultaneously evaluated our most important priorities and acted to preserve and strengthen them. I believe we will emerge from this difficult national recession stronger, more unified and with more clarity of mission.

We also must ensure that our faculty, staff, students and patients have the resources and facilities necessary to achieve excellence. To meet those needs, the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, which will focus on clinically oriented biomedical research will open in 2009, and our plans for the New Hospital Pavilion--a much needed new facility for translational research and patient care--will stay on track for a 2012 opening.

As we move forward, we will continue to foster leadership, discovery, innovation, community partnerships and distinguished patient care despite the context of our nation's economic challenges. It is this devotion to creating new knowledge that keeps us at the forefront of medicine.

James L. Madara, MD
Chief Executive Officer, University of Chicago Medical Center
Dean, Division of Biological Sciences and
Pritzker School of Medicine
University Vice President for Medical Affairs

PDF Downloads

Philanthropy: 22,000 Sparks of Discovery (2.8 MB)
Laying a foundation for the future

Department of Medicine (136 KB)
Delivering personalized medicine and cutting-edge research

Department of Surgery (4.6 MB)
Providing cutting-edge, complex and innovative surgical care
An overview from Jeffery B. Matthews, MD, Dallas B. Phemister Professor of Surgery and Chair, Department of Surgery

University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital (136 KB)
Treating the smallest patients with the latest technology
An overview from David Gozal, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Chair, Department of Pediatrics

Department of Nursing (2.5 MB)
Committed to patient-focused and family-centered care
An overview from Jamie O'Malley, RN, MS, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

Community Affairs (128 KB)
Addressing the needs of our South Side community
An overview from Eric Whitaker, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President of Strategic Affiliations and Associate Dean for Community-Based Research

Research Highlights (124 KB)
Discovery is our business

Cancer Research Center (2.5 MB)
Cooperation, Collaboration, Comprehensiveness

Pritzker School of Medicine (248 KB)
Science and medicine for the betterment of humanity
An overview from Holly J. Humphrey, MD, Professor of Medicine and Dean for Medical Education

2008 Financial Report (116 KB)

The University of Chicago Medical Center
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