To the School of Medicine Community: 
In many ways, the challenges facing medical education is like a hike in mountains that first begins as a gentle walk through the forest only to become more challenging as one moves above the treeline. While the destination is clear, the traveler must be willing to endure the many twists and turns in his or her path to reach the destination.
And so it is with our medical school. Our School of Medicine has a clear vision of what we want to be in 2011. It is a vision determined by internal goals and objectives, yet tempered by outside objectives. While the potential for detours and distractions are many, the School of Medicine remains committed to our vision and our mission within the greater community. Our vision is to continue to build on our more than 140-year-old heritage as one of the country’s premiere medical schools, educating and training the physicians and researchers who will provide the vision and goals for the generation that is to follow. The healthcare leaders and providers of care, the scientists who lead the nation in new discoveries and treatment of mankind’s dreaded diseases are now in our classrooms, clinics and laboratories. Our doctors and scientists-in-the-making are tomorrow’s physicians who will practice their skills throughout the country and in many countries around the world, both in private practice, and in academic medical centers and premier research institutions.
If precedent holds, many of the physicians we train will remain in Michigan, serving their families, neighbors and communities. They will meet the call for a predicted shortage of doctors that threatens to hamstring healthcare in the state. Almost 60 percent of School of Medicine physicians stay in Michigan to practice medicine.
This year’s Match Day ceremony saw the continued success of the School of Medicine when more than 90 percent of our fourth-year students received one of their top three residency choices. More than two-thirds of our graduates will begin practicing their specialties in Michigan.
As we continue to emphasize, our three-part mission remains, as always, education, research and providing healthcare to members of the community, many of whom are uninsured or underinsured. We remain steadfast in that undertaking. Many students who choose our School of Medicine to obtain their medical education say they selected Wayne State University because of its unique location and the hands-on clinical opportunities the school presents. They come to us because they want to make a difference in the community, and they are aware of WSU’s reputation for doing so. That’s a tradition worth building upon, and our students relish the unique opportunities and challenges the School presents.
One of the finest aspects of leading the School of Medicine during this exciting and challenging time is meeting with groups of distinguished alumni who have become pillars of the medical community and are true ambassadors of the clinical mission they embraced years ago during their education and training at the School of Medicine. I have had the opportunity to speak with alumni across the nation about their help in continuing our mission and am always pleased at the strength of the bonds these former students still feel for their School.
While it may be difficult for a medical student to believe he or she has much in common with those who have gone before them perhaps decades earlier, there indeed are common bonds: compassion for those less fortunate than us, an internal drive to make a difference in the world whether in the practice of medicine or developing new ways to treat patients, and the recognition we cannot make a difference without making a change. That is why so many of our alumni believe strongly in giving back to the School of Medicine and helping pave the way for their future colleagues. They continue to do so in many ways, one of the most visible of which is the current construction of the $35 million Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Education Commons. That state-of-the-science institution will stand not only as a commitment to the education of future students from those who have gone before, but as a testament to the School of Medicine’s ongoing commitment to the community.
Thus, our Wayne State University School of Medicine is really a launching pad for new physicians and researchers, as well as a touchstone for alumni. Perhaps we will never know all the ways in which our students touch countless lives and improve the world. We may never know all the new treatments and cures our graduates will discover. But we will always know that our students who forge their way in the world of medicine will say with conviction, as do thousands of current alumni, that they received an excellent start at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. With this in mind, we look forward to greeting our alumni as they return in the spring to see all the changes on the campus and to welcome them home.
Robert M. Mentzer Jr., M.D.
Dean, School of Medicine
Senior Advisor to the President for Medical Affairs
Wayne State University