For more than 100 years, The University of Iowa has been home to one of the great academic medical centers. Thousands of top doctors, researchers, nurses, educators, and support staff, each dedicated to improving human health, work here.
The University of Iowa’s academic medical center consists of University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and University of Iowa Physicians.
Academic Medical Centers Expand Boundaries
America’s academic medical centers expand the boundaries of medical science. As is the case at The University of Iowa, academic medical centers are usually affiliated with major research universities. Most consist of a teaching hospital and a medical school. They are large, complex places with three interconnected missions:
- Research
- Teaching
- Patient care
Many of the most important biomedical discoveries are made in the laboratories of academic medical centers. Every Nobel Prize in Medicine for the past 20 years has been won by someone from an academic medical center.
More than half of the $23.6 billion annual extramural budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is invested in research conducted at academic medical centers. In 2007, the UI Carver College of Medicine received $188 million in research funding, including $137 million from the NIH, ranking it 13th in the nation among public medical schools. Six UI Carver College of Medicine departments rank in the Top 20 among the nation’s 125 medical schools in terms of NIH funding.
The relationship between medical schools and teaching hospitals is critically important. Research discoveries made in the medical laboratories are first brought to patients in teaching hospitals.
Academic Medical Centers Link to Each Other
Academic medical centers across the country form a network through which the latest discoveries and breakthroughs in treatments are communicated. Once breakthroughs are published in medical journals, academic physicians can adopt them quickly to treat their patients.
Academic medical centers also host conferences at which the newest developments and techniques are presented and discussed. The University of Iowa hosts dozens of such conferences each year and faculty from the UI share knowledge with colleagues around the world.
In addition, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, therapists, technologists and support staff all participate in professional development to sharpen their skills and expand their knowledge base.
The Best and the Brightest
Academic medical centers like The University of Iowa attract brilliant, hardworking leaders in their fields. University of Iowa Health Care is home to four investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), one of the world’s most prestigious medical research organizations. Three UI Carver College of Medicine faculty are members of the National Academy of Sciences. Seventeen are members of the Institute of Medicine and 269 are listed as “Best Doctors in America.”
Many of the faculty members at academic medical centers excel in more than one of the missions. Top-flight researchers are also outstanding teachers and educators. A doctor who has published a paper on a genetic disease and presented at an international conference is also the physician treating patients with that disease while training other researchers who will push the horizons of knowledge and future clinicians who will take care of other patients with the disease.
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