Department of Medicine Strategic Plan

The Department of Medicine (DOM) at Baylor College of Medicine is the professional home of more than 1,200 faculty (including 617 full-time faculty), 471 trainees, and approximately 430 staff and students distributed across 14 sections.

The breadth and depth of our department is considerable: We have campus sites at Baylor St Luke’s Medical Center (BSLMC), Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center, Harris Health, Texas Children’s Hospital, CHI St. Luke’s Sugar Land, CHI St. Luke’s the Woodlands, and CHI St. Luke’s the Vintage as well as close associations with a number of interdisciplinary centers, programs and organized research units.

We are proud of our current achievements in discovery, patient care, and medical education and training. Our ambitious goal is to make the DOM a recognized leader in the following areas: scientific discovery and research, patient clinical care, and medical education and training.

With this plan, we are challenging ourselves to do more, go farther, and be better. We plan to achieve more scientific breakthroughs and create more knowledge using the Learning Health System; to provide excellent clinical services in new and better ways, including patient-centered care, population health and precision medicine; to educate, train and recruit high-quality talent more effectively; and to contribute more to the many communities we serve.

We will measure our progress in each of the outlined initiatives as we move toward the achievement of our goals. 

The Department of Medicine has prioritized our operations so that we remain focused on certain aspects that drive our vision.

Our people are our primary assets; without dedicated faculty and staff, we are just another organization. To that end, our processes and procedures always ensure the following aspects are considered:

• Invest in and reward professional development, mentoring and career advancement of DOM’s people
• Improve communication between Department of Medicine Baylor leadership and administration as well as other departments and centers
• Recruit, engage, and invest in an innovative workforce that promotes development of interdisciplinary teams across all the Department of Medicine and Baylor
• Create pathways to recruit, advance and reward excellent scholarly clinicians

Biomedical research is our major hallmark. Given the breadth and depth of the Department of Medicine, our ability to invest in groundbreaking clinical and translational science is considerable. To that end, we have designated the following priorities to further expand and improve our research capabilities:

• We have exceeded our previous goal of becoming better than 30 on the national Blue Ridge rank.  Now we are determined to further increase department extramural research funding and elevate its national rank in the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranking to better than number 20 in the next five years
• Create a new research ecosystem that uses resources across the department and the larger Baylor to accelerate collaboration, innovation, quality and impact of all research from curiosity-driven basic discovery to population and implementation sciences
• Become the engine for BCM’s Learning Health System and its main platform of genomic and phenomic medicine

We strive to deliver state-of-the-art evidence-based practice that also serves as the hub for discovery and implementation in our Learning Health System:

• Achieve recognition by designing and implementing innovative models of care delivery and financing aimed at improving the health of individuals and populations, enhancing quality and reducing costs
• Serve as the tertiary and quaternary provider of choice for patients in Houston, the Gulf Coast region and Texas
• Enhance academic advancement by aligning clinical expectations with academic priorities including quality improvement
• Improve the process, delivery and outcomes of care across Department of Medicine practice pavilions

We are a teaching medical institution with one of the nation's leading medical schools. We are committed to developing the next generation of physicians, scientists and researchers. We are doing this by instituting – and ensuring – the following actions:

• Develop and retain physician scientists within our residency and fellowship programs through expansion of formal research training paths (e.g., physician scientists training program, T32), expanding and improving research mentoring resources and cultural changes
• Enhance the culture and competencies of teaching and learning across the Department of Medicine
• Develop a robust system to monitor the progress and accomplishments of those enrolled in or graduating from our medical school, residency and postdoctoral programs to ensure that they are among the most creative and outstanding leaders in medicine
• Enhance the quality and reputation of the internal medicine residency program with the goal of becoming a top-15-ranked program in the next five years
• Enhance the quality and reputation of all the specialty fellowship programs by incorporating special tracks in research and or focused clinical disciplines within the specialty

We cannot function, nor perform the noble objectives we have set for ourselves without funding and supporting our invaluable administrative faculty, staff and trainees. We will strive to enhance the experience of all our staff to ensure we recruit and retain the best employees, with the following policies:

• Create suitable physical and virtual spaces to facilitate the implementation of the strategic plan of the Department of Medicine
• Develop succession planning within the department with the goal of developing the next generation of leaders and ensuring expanded governance
• Establish a transparent financial reporting system available to and understood by all stakeholders to create the most transparency possible
• Strengthen the department's administrative team to optimize financial performance and operations
• Determine and provide proper data, IT, and resources for the implementation of the department's strategic plan