November 12, 2007
To all faculty and staff of the Miller School of Medicine,
Today is Veterans Day, and we are celebrating the women and men who have given their lives and health to support our nation, the best nation of all. In a recent speech at the U.S. Capitol, the new President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, reminded Congress of the extraordinary impact on the world of young American soldiers going to a place that they had only seen on a map called Normandy, in order to free the world from the Nazis. He spoke to an attentive audience about the fathers of his generation taking their sons and daughters to the cemeteries of Normandy to salute the millions who rest under their American flags and who fell for the freedom of the world. I remember when my mother, with her eyes sparkling, told me about the American tanks rolling through Brussels with American soldiers sitting at the top, freeing Brussels where I was born from the shackles of the Nazi empire. The end of that story had a lot to do with my being in the United States today, the country that I have chosen like so many in Miami as my new country, the nation that welcomed us and gave so many an opportunity available nowhere else.
Today, we remember our veterans, not only those of the Second World War, but all of our veterans. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the War in Afghanistan and Iraq -- we salute and thank all of them. At the Miller School of Medicine we have a unique opportunity to serve our veterans by taking care of them at the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center. What a great privilege it is to care for veterans once they return home. We applaud the efforts of President Shalala and Senator Dole to make sure that everything is done to ensure that care is more effective, patient-centric, efficient, safe, timely and equitable.
There is something else that we do for our veterans. It is my great pleasure to share the news that we are creating a new institute, the WIN Institute. The WIN Institute, which stands for War Injury Neutralization, will be a virtual institute to coordinate the many amazing activities at the Miller School that support care for our veterans as well as civilian victims of severe trauma. In collaboration with the VA, the units that will participate in the WIN Institute receive substantial funding from the federal government (Department of Defense) and state government. The institute will unify multiple centers across our campus, including the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson, the Michael Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the University of Miami Tissue Bank, the Departments of Neurology, Neurological Surgery, and Psychiatry, the Miami Institute for Human Genomics, the nascent program for imaging in neurosciences and many other groups at the Miller School, and is exploring a new alliance with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola.
These centers, institutes and departments have collectively contributed immensely, and probably more than in any other medical school, to the wellness and health of our veterans. From studying post traumatic stress disorder and disorders related to limited brain injury to training our troops at UM/Jackson’s Ryder Trauma Center for rapid intervention for combat injuries, we have developed a formidable opportunity for our soldiers. Dr. Luis Glaser has served as the administrative director for the institute for the past year. Under his leadership our teams of scientists and doctors have partnered to acquire new federal and state funding. The impact of our activities in this discipline has been substantial. As a consequence of training our military, the death rate from battlefield injuries has decreased significantly. As an example, the rate of death of injured soldiers has changed enormously from World War II (when one of every two injured soldiers died), and even from the Vietnam War (one of four). Now, the rate of death of injured soldiers in the War in Afghanistan and Iraq is one of 18. Better preparedness of our military -- through efforts such as those of the Ryder Trauma Center, the Michael Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, and the Departments of Surgery and Orthopedics -- has a lot to do with this progress.
The Tissue Bank and its doctors are working to help military personnel with limb amputation recover a more functional limb. This is one example of the WIN Institute’s ongoing efforts to improve the reintegration into society of our military injured at war. We are seeking new explanations for post traumatic stress disorder using the most advanced broad-based technologies such as genomic sciences. With such efforts, we are translating the human genome project into information that can help identify patients who are at risk for this disorder and prevent its development, or identify proper treatments when recognized.
As the Dean of the Miller School of Medicine, I am so proud of all that we do for our veterans. Today, the 12th of November, 2007, is a day to remember and celebrate our great veterans, our wonderful nation, and our unsurpassed opportunity for freedom.
Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D.
Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean
