The UM System Board of Curators held a public meeting on Monday, April 1. During this meeting, there were a few updates from the Health Affairs Committee, including an introduction of the interim dean of the MU School of Medicine, Steven Zweig.
Maurice Graham, chair of the Health Affairs Committee, gave a brief introduction and talked about the committee and its existence.
“This is the only committee of the Board of Curators that has outside members,” Graham said. “That is for a reason. We value the participation of the members of this committee who are not members of the Board of Curators.”
The committee was founded in 2016 and since then, has continued to address the issues for the university and health care, Graham said.
Graham then discussed the academic health center and the importance of strengthening its financial performance.
“As an academic medical center, MU Health Care margins are vitally important to help fund other assets of the MU Health Care system, including the medical school,” Graham said. “We are dealing with the same challenges as MU Health Care, the same challenges as academic health institutions are dealing with, that is the high cost of health care.”
Graham introduced Steven Zweig, interim dean of the MU School of Medicine, and mentioned some of the awards he has received. Zweig was named the Jane Hickman Teacher of the Year in 2004 and he received the MU Faculty-Alumni Award in 2013.
Zweig discussed the student mission, which is to improve the health of all people, especially Missourians. He also said he values education and research.
“We’re going to build on our past successes and advancing our stated mission of the medical school, which is to improve the health of all people, especially Missourians,” Zweig said. “We’re going to do this by working with outstanding faculty and students.”
Jonathan Curtright, the CEO of MU Health Care, discussed a few statistics about MU medicine students. He said that the School of Medicine has a 98 percent match rate.
“We are the most important school of medicine in Missouri,” Curtright said. “It is an incredibly important aspect of the state of Missouri.”
Curtright also said four in 10 MU Medicine students are going to remain in the state of Missouri.
_Edited by Emily Wolf | ewolf@themaneater.com_