Introducing Executive Vice President and Chancellor for Health Affairs, Harold L. Paz, MD, MS
Why Ohio State is the place to lead the way
We have a unique opportunity at Ohio State to bring together the largest array of colleges of health sciences in the nation along with this extraordinary academic health center, the Wexner Medical Center. Together, we can identify opportunities to train the next generation of clinicians, to do cutting-edge, innovative research, to find treatments and cures for illnesses that have devastated individuals and their families—while at the same time, understanding that health and well-being are determined not just by health care, but also by issues in the home and the local community. There are few other places that have so much critical mass in terms of health and health care, and where we can work collaboratively across disciplines.
It’s time for a new model for academic health
This university, at this time, is uniquely positioned to create a new model for what academic health is all about. In the early 20th century, Abraham Flexner authored the Flexner Report, which created the model for the future of academic medicine: a combination of a medical school and teaching hospital together. In 1917 that was revolutionary and caused an upheaval in the training of physicians, the way science and research were being done, and had a huge impact on care delivery. I think the day of a single school being home for all this work, or thinking about care delivery in a hospital setting per se, has long passed. Given all the changes that have occurred in every other sector of society and the economy—if you look at everything from banking to retail, to how we as individuals live our lives expecting personalization and a digital environment—I think health and health care are ripe for enormous change as well.
It’s about “doing everything humanly possible” to keep people out of the hospital
The new model is one that pulses together medicine, nursing, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, public health, veterinary medicine and the allied health professions, and brings them together around interdisciplinary education and research and discovery, which creates innovation and translation. It’s about making sure people who live here have access to care, and the best care starts in the home with prevention, treating chronic illness and disease, and doing everything humanly possible to make sure they don’t have to come to the hospital unless absolutely necessary. It’s working collaboratively with individuals before they become patients to allow them to achieve their aspirations for health and well-being. It’s really important that our students and trainees are exposed to these new ways of delivering extraordinary care. We’re giving them diplomas that will last 30 to 40 years, so we want to train them on models of the future and not on how care has been delivered in the past.
On interprofessional education—and why he’d like to see more of it
I think we have enormous opportunities here at Ohio State for more interprofessional education, beginning well before graduation. When these doctors, dentists, nurses, optometrists, pharmacists, veterinarians, and other health care practitioners and public health professionals graduate, they’re all expected to work together collaboratively in hospital and outpatient settings.
Wouldn’t it be great if rather than educating students in silos, we could start teaching and training them in teams while they’re here? That will give them a great start when they must collaborate together in their local communities.
Columbus is “obsessed over the future”
This is an extraordinarily vibrant community—one very focused on growth and innovation. A number of towns that were settled before the Revolutionary War are very proud they have long, well-celebrated histories. What makes Columbus unique is that I don’t hear a lot about the history as much as I do about the future. This is a city that’s very forward looking and obsessed over the future—how to be cutting edge, to leverage technology and innovation to be a future city. There’s collaboration among business leaders, the university community, and organizations like the Columbus Partnership, that together have a forward-looking view of how the city can grow.