Making Our Global Relationships Operational

By John R. Finnegan, Jr.
Dean and Professor
Oct. 29, 2007

I've spent the past week in India with an AHC team headed by Vice President Frank Cerra. This is my third trip in as many years, but this time the theme is different. It's about how we make our global relationships in India and elsewhere operational. That means building the "infrastructure" to make carrying out joint programs and projects normative, high quality, and of continuing mutual benefit. Things are changing rapidly to knock down international barriers. Both research and education in the health sciences are "going global" and Minnesota is one of the leaders.

In Delhi, we met with Dr. N.K. Ganguly, Director-General of the Indian Center for Medical Research (ICMR), India's equivalent of the NIH. We formed an ICMR-Minnesota Steering Committee to vet joint research and education proposals, and will be meeting regularly via video conference and in-person in the coming years. Look for new opportunities to engage Indian colleagues in joint research and education efforts.

By the way, Dr. Ganguly informed us that he had met the previous week in Delhi with Dr. Elias Zerhouni, our own NIH Director. Both nations are seeking to lower the barriers to collaborative research.

From Delhi, we traveled to Bangalore where we met with colleagues at St. John's University. They have an excellent and growing clinical research program and center and have already been partnering with our Minnesota faculty.

From Bangalore, we traveled to Manipal, home of Manipal University. One of the largest private universities in south Asia, Manipal rivals the AHC itself in the scope of its health professional colleges (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Allied Health) and health care facilities. Manipal University, too, is very involved in clinical trials research and is eager to develop a closer relationship with Minnesota that, as you know, has considerable expertise in this area. And, importantly, Minnesota and Manipal are working out the operational arrangements to offer public health education to their students, and to function as a field experience site for Minnesota students.

There is so much more to tell and to keep track of, that we will be working with the AHC to create a web site. I'll let you know when it's ready.