Bridging the Past and Future – A Consultant’ s Perspective On The Journey To Establish An Independent 4-Year Medical School at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine And Science( continued)
around Charles Drew was transforming. The 2015 re-opening of Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital across the street from the University was a critical development.
Since 2017 we have formally assisted the university in fulfilling Dr. Charles Drew’ s dream of establishing this independent medical school in the local community where it is most needed. Tripp Umbach’ s role has been to help guide the planning and accreditation process. Today, through a tremendous amount of strategic thinking, team building, hard work, and financial stability, the University is as strong as at any time in its 50 year history. CDU is poised to move forward with the long awaited medical school.
The opportunity for future success is grounded in why the university was founded-- to eliminate health disparities in South Los Angeles and communities like it by developing health professional leaders who seek social justice, promote wellness, and provide care with excellence and compassion. CDU has survived and thrived over the past decade and is poised to drive community-based medicine towards its greatest evolution in centuries, moving from a primary focus on sickness and disease to an intentional focus on health and wellness.
The proposed new independent medical school at Charles Drew is the right project, at the right time, in the right place. The transition from a concentration on medical science to an emphatic shift to human wellness requires physicians and other healthcare workers to take on a fresh set of competencies such as heightened empathy, a deep understanding of cultural and economic geography, and to pay close attention to community needs.
The proposed curriculum at Charles Drew is rooted in the shift from viewing people through the lens of a sick person or patient, to viewing them as well and productive people. CDU’ s new medical school is rooted in the guiding principles of population health improvement, community engagement in defining and addressing population health needs, aligned leadership, sustainability, and collaborative use of data and analysis.
CDU’ s aspiration for a full four-year independent medical education program displays its commitment to cultivating diverse healthcare professional leaders. The goal to eradicate healthcare disparities throughout Los Angeles County and the State of California is a national imperative. Growing the supply of diverse community-focused physicians offers an opportunity for CDU to embrace the leadership role that community leaders envisioned in the 1960’ s.
My connection to this project takes me back to my childhood in St. Louis in the 1960s, where I was drawn to the civil rights movement through my father’ s work at a historically Black college. While this project connects me to my early education in community ministry, urban geography, and community planning, it inspires me to dream of a bright future for urban communities. Not only for these communities to become healthier and wealthier, but also to transform them into places where social justice and equality set the stage for wellness: happiness to reign over sickness and dispair in South Los Angeles.
Paul Umbach is Founder and Senior Principal of Tripp Umbach. He is among the most experienced consultants in the United States, having directed more than 2,500 assignments in every state and more than 500 communities throughout the country. Over the past 30 years, Paul has implemented his“ Turning Ideas into Action” model in creating 50 new medical schools, graduate medical education, and health science programs.
Tripp Umbach has implemented growth strategies for our nation’ s leading academic medical centers and universities. He is the father of Economic Design Thinking, which he developed while completing post-graduate work at Harvard University.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 9