UCP now has approximately 100 contracts with various HMOs and other managed care entities. As a historic provider to the under-served and unfunded patients, we are participating in the new Medicaid managed care program. This is giving us a whole new impetus to participate in capitated care. It should not surprise you that this is adding to my sleep deprivation. Probably the biggest challenge facing academic medicine is how to ensure that faculty do not become clinicians only.
Faculty choose to become faculty because they want to teach and do research.
In fact, there's evidence that research activity in medical schools decreases as managed care penetration in their locales increases. I also believe that academic medicine has something unique and special to offer. In fact, I believe it is our responsibility to do so. Medical school faculties live by the scientific method - it is the basis of what we know, what we teach, and what we do. It is the approach that has led to the pre-eminence of our country in medical research and medical care and makes us the standard for the rest of the world.