A $35 million gift from an anonymous donor will allow the College to establish a new center for health care education and research the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science by Summer 2011, according to College President Jim Yong Kim. The Center which will offer health care-related classes to undergraduates and introduce a master's degree program through the Tuck School of Business will collaborate with on-campus groups and medical centers across the nation on health care research projects, Kim told The Dartmouth.
The Center will focus on health care research, education, collaboration, implementation and advocacy as part of an effort to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care nationwide, Kim said. The Center will not detract from the College's focus on the liberal arts, but will encourage students and faculty of all academic interests to apply their skills to issues in health care, he said.
"Some people have been worried, [asking] Oh, is this going to be all health care, all the time?'" he said. "The final lesson from this is, people are willing to invest in Dartmouth College. Our supporters are looking to us for big ideas that can have an impact on the world and on our students."
Tuck and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice will jointly offer a master's degree in health care delivery science through the Center beginning in July 2011, TDI director James Weinstein said in an interview with The Dartmouth. The 18-month program will accept approximately 50 students, who will come to campus at various times during the academic year when most undergraduate students are not on campus, according to Weinstein.
While logistics have not yet been determined for the master's degree students, the program will be structured so that it will not "interfere with normal Dartmouth programs or classes," Weinstein said.
The Center will also expand the curriculum of Dartmouth Medical School to courses in health care delivery and make more courses available to undergraduates, Weinstein said. New classes could be offered at the College as early as the 2010-2011 academic year, according to Kim.
Kim said he hopes to teach some of these new classes, including one on global health care delivery similar to a course he taught at Harvard University. Other courses are likely to be taught by TDI professors, according to Weinstein.
"We have now quite a nice library on case studies," Kim said. "I would love to soon teach a case-based course for upper-level students."
A minor in health policy and clinical practice may become available to undergraduate students through the Center "within the next year," Weinstein said.
The Center will also facilitate joint research programs between Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and other hospitals and clinics across the nation, according to Kim.
The Center will build on research ventures between TDI and other medical service providers including the Mayo Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, according to Weinstein. These affiliates could begin to apply the Center's research in health care systems selected as test cases, he said.
The major collaborators contributing to the Center's initial development will be Dartmouth's graduate schools, TDI and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Kim said, adding that all elements of Dartmouth will be integrated into the Center's work.
The Center will encourage cross-campus collaboration as it researches best practices in health care, according to Kim. Researchers will investigate various social aspects of health care including the cultural and "life-style" implications of certain health care policies that require the expertise of faculty in the arts and sciences, Kim said.
The Center will also investigate "green," or sustainable, medicine, Weinstein said. Systems engineers from the Thayer School of Engineering will conduct experiments and research about the materials used in health care, and will study the "kind of footprint [those materials] leave and don't leave."
Evaluating sustainability in health care would involve a multidisciplinary effort from faculty at the College, Kim said.
"As far as we know, no one has ever looked [to see] if health care is a green industry or not," Kim said. "There's a great opportunity for us to bring sustainability to health care."
With "at least 15 to 20 people" set to begin working with the Center, the creation of the new institute will allow Dartmouth to hire more faculty, according to Kim.
"We are going to be able to have new faculty lines for people in the arts and sciences scholars who specialize, for example, in the medical humanities," Kim said.
Employees at the Center will report to College Provost Carol Folt until an executive director has been appointed, according to Kim. The Center will conduct a national search for an executive director, a position that Kim said he anticipates will be filled "sometime in the next few months."
Even after an executive director assumes oversight of the Center's daily operations, Kim and Weinstein will both continue to give the Center direction, according to Weinstein.
"Dr. Kim and I are going to share the responsibility of overseeing the Center, even as we have a director," he said. "From our roles in different organizations, we can help facilitate the collaborations [across departments and organizations.]"
Dartmouth will receive a increased visibility and national prestige after the Center opens, according to Kim.
"People are going to be coming here to Dartmouth, we think, from all over the country to learn from us," he said.
Kim said he hopes to encourage peer institutions to develop similar programs and models that investigate effective health care policies.
"We're known for our education efforts and our teaching," he said. "We hope that the teaching modules that we develop will be utilized all over the country. This gives us the opportunity to think anew about innovative research programs."
The Center will be run out of an existing building on campus, but a specific location has yet to be determined, Kim said.
"It's extremely important for the Center to have a physical presence on the Hanover campus," he said.
DHMC will as the base for the clinical practice of the Center, according to Kim.
Making health care more efficient is an especially relevant topic that directly affects students, Kim said.
"An increasing proportion of your tax dollars will be spent on Medicare and Medicaid," he said. "We want to just make the case that institutions of higher education with so many resources tackle those great issues."
The $35 million donation for the Center was gifted to Dartmouth "just months ago," Kim said.
"The donor just recognized that among Republicans and Democrats, that Dartmouth was recognized as one of the leaders in the country of health care delivery," Kim said. "One of the reasons for doing this now is that the donor shares our sense that the Center can be a clarion call. What we really need are other colleges in the country to support our research."
