LETTER FROM THE LEADERSHIP

Dear Colleagues,

This spring's groundbreaking for our 120,000-square-foot Center for Education and F. William Blaisdell, M.D., Medical Library in Sacramento marks the beginning of a new era in medical education at UC Davis Health System.

The education center, located next to our teaching hospital, UC Davis Medical Center, will serve as a hub that celebrates life-long learning, fosters the development of new and innovative teaching techniques, and enhances interaction and communication among students, residents, faculty, researchers, technology partners and others in the medical field.

It will offer an environment that attracts the most qualified students and faculty, allowing the School of Medicine to achieve its mission of advancing the health of the community.

The strategic location of the education building next to the hospital also will offer a new synergism for students and faculty, providing them with a more collaborative environment that truly integrates the basic sciences with clinical experiences. It also brings the classes closer together so that the senior students can be on hand to serve as role models for the first- and second-year students.

We anticipate that the class of 2010 will be the first class to complete all four years of their education in the $40 million facility.

With the groundbreaking, we have also launched an unprecedented philanthropic effort to finance the new education building, a vascular research institute, expansion of the UC Davis Cancer Center, a new surgery and emergency services facility, a clinical research facility for the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, student scholarships and endowments for faculty.

The success of our fund-raising initiatives, including the new education building, is critical to the success of the health system's strategic plan. The plan integrates our teaching, research, patient care and community engagement missions within the school and medical center so that we are better able to discover and share knowledge to advance health. To do that, we need to construct new, state-of-the-art medical facilities, conduct cutting-edge research, educate the next generation of physicians and attract top faculty and researchers who will forge paths in medical discovery.

Other hospitals in the Sacramento region provide patient care. But because we are an academic medical center, we offer more. That is what makes UC Davis Health System unique.

Sincerely,