The Observer, September 28, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 5
Davis continues on as School of Medicine dean
Two weeks ago today, the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (SOM) announced that interim dean Pamela Bowes Davis would continue her leadership role in a permanent capacity. Davis, who is also vice president for medical affairs and vice dean for research at the SOM, had been serving as interim dean since Ralph Horwitz departed for Stanford University last September.
Four days after Davis's appointment, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $64 million to Case, in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth Medical Center, and University Hospitals. The grant will help integrate the four institutions into a national consortium designed to transform the way clinical and translational research is conducted.
Improving translational research, which is the scientific work required to translate a basic scientific discovery into a clinical application, is a major goal of Davis' for the medical school.
"We have fantastic basic research," she said. "We now have an opportunity to build translational research through the grant."
Rumors have been flying since Sept. 5 about a break between Case and the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner College of Medicine. While Davis declined to comment on the story, she did cite the grant as "one more example" of their "successful collaboration."
Davis has been a member of the Case community since 1981, a witness to both the good and the bad. She does believe, however, that the university is on its way up.
"I think Barbara Snyder will definitely get us on track," she said. "She will bring clarity and energy to the position, and a very clear set of priorities." Davis hopes to be able to help Snyder by assuring fiscal responsibility in the SOM and developing progressive programs that will attract funding to and drive energy in the SOM.
Davis, a world-renowned expert in cystic fibrosis research, earned both her doctorate and her medical degree from Duke University in 1973 and 1974, respectively. Originally, she intended to get a medical degree simply as background to enrich her laboratory investigation.
"During my first rotation, it suddenly became important to me that the lab work had meaning in the context of the patient," she said. "I really wanted to make a difference in people's lives."
She ended up in the NIH cystic fibrosis lab and found it intensely exciting.
"It was a disease I thought would be solved in my lifetime," she said. "And I think it will be solved, in the sense of a disease versus a high-grade nuisance. I will have had a part in that."
Davis was one of eight women out of 88 people in her medical school class at Duke, and readily admits that times have changed.
"Now, half the class is women," she said. And it isn't just the demographics that are different. "I was on call five nights a week as an intern, while there's now an 80-hour limit. The hazing aspect of medical school is gone and emphasis on training is greater. It's much more civilized; before, the doctor had to put up with fatigue, and we now realize it isn't good for the doctor or the patient."
As a doctor, researcher, professor, and administrator at both Case and Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Davis is a fantastically busy woman. She acknowledges the "terrific people" who work for her – graduate and postdoctoral students, administrative staff, technical help, and vice deans, among others – as key to her success.
In her spare time, Davis likes to read, exercise, and travel "though I won't have as much time for that now that I'm dean". She also hopes to get another puppy.
Overall, Davis said, "It is a privilege to be dean. We have great medical students and terrific graduate students, and we're looking for the best and the brightest to come join us."
