UD health sciences dean to lead partnership programs
Kathy Matt

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10:25 a.m., Dec. 14, 2009----Kathy Matt, dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware, has been appointed to leadership positions in two partnership programs that she sees as key to promoting health research and education in Delaware.

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Matt, who was appointed dean in July, has been named executive director of the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance (DHSA) and co-director of UD's health education partnership with Thomas Jefferson University (TJU). Dr. Michael Vergare, senior vice president for academic affairs at TJU, will co-direct the latter program.

A graduate of UD with bachelor's and master's degrees in biology, Matt holds a Ph.D. in endocrine physiology from the University of Washington. Before joining the UD faculty, she was associate vice president for clinical partnerships and research infrastructure at Arizona State University (ASU), and she has served as director of clinical partnerships at ASU and Mayo Clinic Arizona since 2004.

Matt views the signatures on a memorandum of understanding -- and the handshake that seals the deal -- as merely the jumping-off points for a broad range of collaborative activities, including joint faculty appointments, graduate programs, research seed grant programs, and clinical research projects.

It is this vision that earned Matt her appointment as dean and her charge to lead the two partnerships.

In addressing the University's Board of Trustees at its semiannual meeting on Dec. 9 at UD's newest property acquisition, the former Chrysler assembly plant, University President Patrick Harker said, “Hers is exactly the kind of leadership we need at UD, as we expand our health education partnership with Thomas Jefferson University and embark on the expansive and exciting Delaware Health Sciences Alliance with Jefferson Medical College, Christiana Care, and Nemours.”

“Those partnerships will be key anchors of this property,” Harker continued. “Through them, we will educate future generations of healthcare professionals, grow the region's health sciences research and more quickly translate that research into clinical practice, and improve healthcare delivery throughout Delaware.”

The new property is a critical element in Matt's vision.

“One of my major goals for the college,” she says, “is to create an environment for synergy, collaboration and innovation -- an outcome that occurs when the various disciplines are located in the same space. In the new buildings we will form innovative interdisciplinary and translational research centers and institutes such as the Delaware Rehabilitation Institute and create clinical facilities including an expanded physical therapy clinic and a clinical research center which will provide the base for strong research and teaching programs.”

“The facility will feature state-of-the-art wet bench research facilities and clinical research space and next-generation simulation laboratories,” she adds, “as well as a video conference room that will link us to our clinical partners across the state and into our neighboring states for research conferences, grant development, and team teaching of new graduate and professional courses.”

For Matt, it is perhaps no coincidence that the Chrysler site will become the future home of the college she is leading and the location of a large health sciences campus. She grew up on Chrysler Avenue in Newark, with a view of the former auto plant, and her strong ties to Delaware only fuel her passion for expanding existing health sciences programs and launching new ones.

“All of this will create better jobs and better healthcare for the community,” she says, “while enabling UD to tap into more research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, so that we can shorten the pipeline between discovery and delivery.”

“We're a university,” she adds, “and our main mission is to develop new knowledge. But I think we're obligated not only to contribute to knowledge development but also to hand-carry it to the medical community.”

Another important component of the plan, according to Matt, is transformational educational programs, where doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, medical technologists, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and health behavior experts train together. “Inter-professional training reduces misunderstanding and improves cooperation among diverse groups of people with a common goal -- the well being of the patient,” she says.

Matt also sees real advantages in future healthcare professionals being educated at an institution like the University of Delaware, where students in non-medical disciplines can become involved in unique ways. For example, theatre students at UD have role-played as patients in nursing scenarios, and Matt envisions ways that students in music, art, and writing could participate. For example, writing students could help hospice patients write journal entries or compose poems for their family members.

“The bright future of healthcare depends on the education of an innovative set of new healthcare professionals,” Matt says, “as well as on the further development of evidence-based medicine, which relies on a strong research foundation. We have the opportunity to create that here in Delaware.”

“Delaware is a microcosm of the nation,” she adds, “and its size lends itself towards everyone working together to get things done. There is an enormous opportunity here for Delaware to have a big presence in the medical community by building a strong platform in interdisciplinary science that can be translated into health practices, therapies, and interventions, resulting in improvements in people's lives -- now.”

Article by Diane Kukich

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