{"id":59922,"date":"2012-05-09T15:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T19:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=59922"},"modified":"2012-05-14T15:33:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T19:33:16","slug":"health-center%e2%80%99s-new-leader-hosts-first-town-hall-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/05\/health-center%e2%80%99s-new-leader-hosts-first-town-hall-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Center\u2019s New Leader Hosts First Town Hall Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Frank Torti holds his first town hall meeting in a crowded Keller Auditorium. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI hate deans.\u201d With that opening sentence, Dr. Frank M. Torti<\/a> immediately grabbed the attention of the audience gathered Tuesday in Keller auditorium for the first town hall meeting held by the Health Center\u2019s new executive vice president and medical school dean.<\/p>\n

After the laughter subsided, Torti explained the reasons for his loathing and promised to try to do things differently. \u201cI will try to streamline decision-making. We will increase transparency, we will increase accountability. Notice I said we, not I. This has to be a team sport. Faculty, staff, students, and I will do this together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Frank Torti responds to a faculty member's question. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Torti told the standing room-only audience \u201cto forget the UCHC you knew.\u201d He explained how the Health Center is the best place in America right now to start a career in academic medicine, and that it is growing while others are shrinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need transformational ideas and innovations. Discoveries and innovations do not happen in community hospitals. They happen in academic medical centers. I think that\u2019s why you\u2019re here and that\u2019s a big reason why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torti said the single biggest obstacle to the Health Center\u2019s success is its chronic financial deficit. \u201cWe must make prudent and reasoned effort to increase our income and decrease our expenses in order to secure our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Health Center\u2019s eighth medical school dean joins UConn from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he served as vice president for strategic programs, director of its comprehensive cancer center, and chair of the Department of Cancer Biology.<\/p>\n

Torti\u2019s research interests focus on the potential of personalized medicine, which he said will transform medical care. But he told the audience he wants to emphasize another kind of personalized medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat personalized medicine is a big smile for someone being admitted to the hospital; stopping to give directions to a patient who is lost; taking the time to comfort a patient\u2019s family; and making sure the call light is answered promptly. Make no mistake about it \u2013 this is the personalized medicine I value most.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to say that patients come first. \u201cThey are the source of our revenue, the focus of our research, and the foundation of all of our teaching of medical and dental students, residents, and clinical fellows. As long as the patients are the touchstones of our decisions, I believe we\u2019ll be moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torti intends to take a fresh look at the Health Center\u2019s priorities, and the plans on how to get there. He said the review would be quick and surgical, not long and convoluted. \u201cMy explicit purpose is to give everyone a voice in the direction and future of the Health Center and to foster a culture of inclusiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

He outlined three pillars to support his vision of the future.<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. Distinction<\/strong> \u2013 developing programs that can make a unique and profound contribution.<\/li>\n
  2. Stewardship<\/strong> \u2013 bringing our resources and ingenuity to bear on delivering quality health care to the poor and disenfranchised.<\/li>\n
  3. Community<\/strong> \u2013 finding a way back to a strong sense of collegiality, responsibility, and mutual commitment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

    Torti concluded by saying his door was always open and he would soon be holding meetings with small groups of students, faculty, and staff. \u201cWe have a lot to do. We\u2019ll do it together and we\u2019ll get it done \u2014 guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n

    Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dr. Frank Torti discusses his vision for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":59924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-59922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 05:50:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59922"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60154,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59922\/revisions\/60154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/59924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59922"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=59922"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=59922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}