During his “State of the University of Arizona Health Sciences” address on Tuesday, UA Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, shared the health sciences accomplishments and outlined the significant progress being made to achieve its short- and long-term goals.
He began by announcing the name change for the Arizona Health Sciences Center, which now will be known as the “University of 
Arizona Health Sciences.” The name change represents a move to clearly identify Arizona’s academic health center as an integral part of the UA, one of the nation’s premier research universities.
Dr. Garcia cited the many successful collaborations at the UA Health Sciences (UAHS) and the increased centralization and integration of resources across the colleges and centers. He listed centralized budgeting via Responsibility Centered Management implementation, the development of a biobank to support collaborative research, the creation of a research data warehouse to support informatics and the development of an innovation pipeline through the new Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation, as key developments in centralization.
Dr. Garcia said the recruitment of high-profile health sciences leadership was integral to the success of UAHS and he named the following key appointments: Myra L. Muramoto, MD, MPH, professor of family and community medicine and public health, was named chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine; Monica Kraft, MD, was named chair of the Department of Medicine and Robert and Irene Flinn Professor of Medicine; Charles B. Cairns, MD, FACEP, was named interim dean of the College of Medicine – Tucson, assistance vice president for clinical research and clinical trials for the UA Health Sciences and professor of emergency medicine; Leigh Neumayer, MD, MS, was named chair of the Department of Surgery and Margaret E. and Fenton L. Maynard Endowed Chair in Breast Cancer Research; Andrew Kraft, MD, was named UA Cancer Center director and associate vice president for oncology services, and senior associate dean for translational research in the UA College of Medicine – Tucson; and Wayne K. Jacobsen, MD, professor of anesthesiology, was named head of the Department of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Garcia also cited as pivotal accomplishments the vision of the Health Sciences Advisory Councils in identifying and targeting the four areas of research excellence: population health and health outcomes, health disparities, precision health and neuroscience. The following newly launched centers of the UA Health Sciences supports the UA Never Settle plan and were listed as key examples of progress in these four areas:
- Center for Applied Genetic and Genomic Medicine
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics
- Center for Population Health and Discovery
- Center for the Elimination of Border Health Disparities
- Center for Disparities, Obesity and Metabolism
- Asthma and Airways Disease Research Center
- • Center for Innovation in Brain Science
- • Brain Science Imaging and Innovation Center
Looking ahead to his five-year goals, Dr. Garcia said he and his team, including the deans of the colleges of medicine in Tucson and Phoenix, nursing, pharmacy and public health, have begun 
working strategically to improve their national rankings, while also working to enhance the diversity of students, medical residents and faculty members. He cited inclusion-and-diversity pipeline programs, such as the newly created BLAISER program, AZ-Pride program and the medical school Pathway Programs at the College of Medicine – Phoenix and Tucson, as well as high school research experiences such as the Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance and other successful health sciences programs that work to spur interest in health careers.
Dr. Garcia said he and his team also are working to increase the number of physician-scientists across the health sciences and to achieve national leadership in interprofessional education and practice.
In addition, he said the UAHS is continuing to actively pursue a Clinical Translational Science Award via the Arizona Institute for Clinical & Translational Science (AZiCATS) leadership team. AZiCATS is the UAHS academic home for clinical and translational research, providing funding, resources and education to help translate ideas into health innovations.
Dr. Garcia outlined philanthropy success and the recruitment of Jennifer Flores as associate vice president and chief health sciences development officer as key to the future success of the UAHS. A centralized team effort, united with support from the UAHS colleges enhances the strategy.
To move the UA Health Sciences forward in a sustainable fashion, Dr. Garcia praised the UA partnership with Banner Health. “Partnering with Banner Health has been transformative and paradigm shifting,” Dr. Garcia said. “All academic health centers depend upon an annual flow of funds from their health-care delivery system partners to sustain and enhance the academic mission, particularly for education and research.”
The UA Health Sciences and Banner – University Medicine have created a joint Academic Management Council (AMC), with a focus on employment transitions, contracting and funds flow, among many other efforts. To bridge Tucson and Phoenix operations, the AMC has created education, finance, innovation, research and physician compensation committees.
In addition, Dr. Garcia shared information about tremendous new infrastructure being built, thanks to the Banner partnership, to enhance educational facilities and clinical services, including:
- A new Banner – University Medical Center Tucson hospital
- The new Banner – University Medical Center Tucson North Campus, next to the UA Cancer Center – North Campus
- The Biomedical Science Laboratory 2, next to the UA BIO5 Institute
- The SIPHER Building (Simulation, Inter-Professional Health, Education and Research), behind the UA College of Pharmacy next to the Medical Research Building
- The Biomedical Partnership Building, a 10-story research building with imaging, informatics and lab space on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus
In closing, Dr. Garcia outlined the 10-year vision for the UA Health Sciences, including improving health in the state, the border region and the world; gaining improved recognition as a high-impact, high-performing leader in academic medicine, scientific discovery and translation to improve health; and becoming a national leader in diversity in the health sciences, training faculty, staff, students and a biomedical workforce.
To view the “State of the University of Arizona Health Sciences” address, please visit http://streaming.biocom.arizona.edu/people/?id=13860