MDNews - Central New York

JULIO LICINIO, MD, PHD, is halfway through his f irst yea r as Senior Vice President a nd Dea n of the College of Medicine at Upstate Medical University. Dr. Licinio was selected after a lengthy process, which brought him to Syracuse on five occasions. At the same time, he was considering a second leadership position in medical academia in Arizona. Dr. Licinio, a psychiatrist, decided to come to Central New York after eight years in Australia because of Upstate's outstand- ing reputation and his preference for the area and the change of seasons. He wa s bor n i n Bra z i l , where he attended medical school and completed a residency in internal medicine, which he followed with a fellowship in medi- cine/endocrinology at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and a research-track residency in psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center. "His experience as a physician-scientist with a broad international reputation, together with his successful career and critical understanding of administrative leadership, clinical care, research, educa- tion and policy, will move Upstate forward and broaden our research and academic enter pr ise," says Upstate President Danielle Laraque-Arena, MD. "His work in translational medicine and broad global perspective are especially important to Upstate and positions him well to meet the challenges of academic medicine." Dr. Licinio's first year medical class c o n s i s t s o f 1 6 8 s t u d e n t s c h o s e n from 4,334 applicants. Upstate has 635 medical students, including 578 New York residents. He favors more interaction with other units of the state university system and an increased pipeline of students fluent in Chinese and Spanish, languages spoken by a n i ncrea si ng number of New Yorkers. The large debt most young physicians face a f ter medica l school is drawing increased attention from medical school deans, including Dr. Licinio. During his early months on the job at Upstate, he met with the dean of New York University School of Medicine, which has started a new program to address these financial issues. NYU initiated a plan for 20 percent of its medical students to drop their four- year curriculum to three years and start residency training a year earlier. It can be argued that these two factors could produce a very significant reduction in debt. Completing three years of medical school and residency training in Syracuse could increase the chances for medical students and residents to remain in the area after they have had additional time to become acclimated and learned to appre- ciate all it has to oƒer, both personally and professionally. There continues to be a scarcity of primary care physicians in Central and Northern New York. Medical school debts prompt many young physicians to shy away from primary care for other higher paying specialties. Reduction of the debt described above could have a positive impact attracting more young physicians to primary care. Dr. Licinio has spent much of his career conducting medical research, including in the areas of depression and obesity. He points out that these two subjects are rarely studied together. Such joint research has been one of his prime fields of research for many years. "While doing our best to excel in our training, research and clinical missions, we have to keep in mind that we are a key part of the Central New York community," Dr. Licinio says. "Therefore, we have to always remember that community service is an indispensable part of our mission. What distinguishes the medical care we provide is the combination of being the only academic medical center in the region, the largest local provider of health providers and a state-owned institution that sees community service as our major driver." As Dr. Licinio and I walked out of his o«ce in November, I asked him about his hobbies. He replied that he liked "traveling and cooking" and, he added with a laugh, "eating." He is ma rried to Ma-Li Wong, MD, PhD, with whom he has co-authored many articles and publications. The couple have two chil- dren, A lice and John, who completed undergraduate study in Australia. Alice is a now a medical student in Milan, and John is a n undergraduate student at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications. Gerald N. "Jerry" Homan was chief executive ocer of the Onondaga County Medical Society f rom 1981 until his retirement on Jan. 31, 2014, and is co- author of two books, Medical Malpractice Insura nce: A Leg islator 's View, and The Histor y of Loca l Medica l Ca re: Celebrating Physicians Past and Present, 1806-2006. ■ Medical School Curriculum for Some Students? BY JERRY HOFFMAN 0 5 M D N E W S .C O M /// M D N E W S C E N T R A L N Y ■ 2 018 H E A LT H C A R E P E R S P E C T I V E ❰❰❰❰❰ 0 5

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