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The Past
Our past started with an idea - provide more physicians
for Illinois and increase opportunities for Illinois residents to attend medical
school. This idea became a reality in July of 1970 when the Illinois legislature
voted to expand the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago to
three additional sites outside Chicago, in Peoria, Rockford, and Urbana. Thus
began the ominous task of "birthing," developing, and introducing the
Peoria School of Medicine, as it was known then, to the community.
The Present
In the last two years, we have seen rapid changes in
healthcare on both a national and local level. We are changing the way we obtain
and pay for healthcare. Moreover, we are changing how we view health and
healthcare. We are beginning to realize that health is not just the treatment of
disease, but includes illness prevention and the support of a healthy lifestyle,
which must include involvement from the whole community. Changes in our thinking
about health are having important impacts on the education and research programs
of the College of Medicine.
At the College of Medicine, we are spending a great deal of time and effort
evaluating our programs in education, research, and patient care to identify how
we need to adapt them to a changing environment. We completed a strategic
planning process two years ago, and now we are embarking on major revision of
our undergraduate curriculum. Our focus must be to develop a setting that
fosters the education of a generalist physician, and we want all of our
graduates to embody these attributes regardless of the medical discipline they
enter. In addition, we will encourage more of our students to enter primary care
disciplines in order to serve the state of Illinois and our community in the
next century.
The Future
As an institution devoted to the education of
physicians, the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria will
provide our medical students and residents with the medical knowledge and skills
they need to take them into the 21st century. Our goal is to educate physicians
who practice the highest quality medicine and can work in a cost-conscious
environment that emphasizes managed care.
Our programs will embody a comprehensive approach to education, by addressing
the needs of the individual through medical school and residency training, as
well as offer continuing medical education opportunities for the practitioner.
Information technologies of the present and future will be an integral part of
our curriculum. Our students will learn they are part of an interdisciplinary
healthcare team that is responsible for patient care management.
The other equally important arena for the College of Medicine is the pursuit of
scholarship and research. Our faculty and students will continue to be actively
involved in basic biological research and in clinical research.
The success of our educational programs is a reflection of the collaborative
relationship between the College of Medicine and its major affiliated teaching
hospitals, Saint Francis Medical Center and the Methodist Medical Center of
Illinois. In addition, numerous other institutions in central Illinois
contribute to the education of our students.
The current and on-coming changes in the healthcare system mean the College of
Medicine at Peoria will educate a new breed of physicians, will find new ways to
serve our community, and will cultivate innovative associations with hospitals,
other healthcare providers, and consumers. We look forward to the next 25 years
as we educate tomorrow's physicians.
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