The formation of the foundation sends a message. They're welcomed, invited. One of the bigger challenges in clinical education today is developing effective methods for teaching students how to examine patients under enormous time constraints. A doctor today is lucky to have 20 to 30 minutes with each patient. Another challenge will be to prepare the student for the moral vicissitudes of medical practice.
Students face a moral battering.
They arrive dedicated to the patient and they are mantled with an institutional responsibility to serve the institution, serve it efficiently, with no similar stress on quality of care. We get fabulous educational support from all kinds of places. However, the foundation could serve as a prototype for strengthening the academic mission of all of HMS's affiliated hospitals. And that's what we hope this foundation will do. It will help us get out ahead of the wave to where we're controlling a little bit more of our destiny.