Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/87674
The College of Medicine at Rockford's first 40 years 1970 Dean Robert L. Evans, MD, appointed first dean of new site, College of Medicine at Rockford 1972 First class of medical students arrives 1973 Dean Evans, Joseph Pitttman, MD, and Richard Peters publish a paper about community-based medical schools that serves as the foundation for the college's regional sites 1976 Rockford Health Systems Research founded to provide applied research, needs assessments and feasibility studies; becomes division of health policy and social science research, part of department of family and community medicine, in 2009 1986 The College of Medicine and Pierce Chemical Company partner to provide area schoolteachers an opportunity to gain firsthand research experience in laboratories, providing them with exposure to nationally peer-reviewed biomedical research 1990 Illinois state legislature passes the Rural Downstate Health Act to improve access to health care in rural, downstate and other areas of designated shortage 1993 Illinois Rural Medical Education Program (RMED) is established particular strengths in primary care and rural medicine. Among those who helped to shape the campus' programs is 73-year-old Michael Werckle, MD, a physician-entrepreneur internist who bought or built and sold health care practices in the Rockford area as a primary care doctor. An unassuming, affable country doctor, he also made house calls for 46 years and served, for part of that time, as the director of the Office of Medical Education at the College of Medicine at Rockford. "Our students do more here," he says. "They don't have layers of residents and fellows. Our kids see everything." Werckle adds that Rockford has benefited tremendously from having a medical campus around because "the educational level of the community is raised." Lawrence Morrissey, the Rockford native who serves as mayor, issued a statement that showed his wholehearted agreement. "The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford has, for many years, contributed to the health and well-being of our community. Many of the over 1,400 physicians who received training there have remained to practice medicine in our region," the statement read. "In addition to medical training and patient care, the College of Medicine does valuable research and community service projects. Its recent expansion to add a pharmacy program demonstrates its continued commitment to the region." Steve Stadelman, a former television reporter and anchor at Rockford's WTVO for 25 of the 40 years of the existence of the campus gives the school much credit for its ability to help Rockford weather economic ups and downs. "The college's mission of providing quality health care and educational opportunities to the people of Rockford and beyond is key to the region's ability to thrive," wrote Stadelman, the Democratic nominee for state Senate in the 34th District, which includes most of the city of Rockford. The College of Medicine has worked with schools and local agencies through role modeling to introduce students to the possi- bility of careers in the health professions, contributed to its tax base and brought state-of-the-art clinical care and research opportunities. All of this comes in addition to the Rockford campus' primary goal: to generate and shape physicians, nurses, public health practitioners, pharmacists and biotechnologists from the raw student material that enters. "I call them GUMPs, or Generalized Undifferentiated Medi- cal Products," says Martin Lipsky, MD, regional dean of the medical school. Lipsky, a family practitioner, has led the campus for more than eight years and has helped oversee the evolution of the campus—and the students. "The students are smarter, more well-rounded, more career driven and very aggressive about figuring things out," he says. Figuring things out seems to be the College of Medicine at Rockford's way, since the medical school began in the former 25,000-square-foot Rockford Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, with the first 20 students entering on Sept. 5, 1972. The campus encompasses a total of about 250,000 square feet now, including a major addition in 1976 and a $26 million expansion and renovation in 2010 that added much-needed facilities, including a 6,500-square- foot standardized patient suite. The school's burgeoning capacity and expanded programming necessitated that it go by a more all-encompassing moniker, so the campus traded in the old "UICOM-R" label for the "University of Illi- nois Rockford, A UIC Health Sciences Campus," an umbrella term that reflects all of the educational and training programs based at Rockford. One of four University of Illinois College of Medicine training sites, the Rockford campus since its inception has provided second-, third- and fourth-year medical students basic science and clinical training in the academic building, three affiliated hospitals (Swedish American Hospital, OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center and Rockford Memorial Hospital), community faculty practices and freestanding clinics. "We are truly a community-based campus," says Lipsky. "The bulk of our faculty are community-based MDs and that's not common in academic centers." Not only does the campus rely on the community to teach its medical students, but it asks community leaders to provide guidance on how it can fully integrate within Rockford through the dean's coun- cil, a group of well-placed area residents who meet bi-monthly. One member, Rudy Valdez of Hamilton Sundstrand, acts as a liaison to local Latinos and other minorities and strives to link campus services 32 | FALL 2012