MEMBERS ABSENT: Drs. William Brody, James Anthony, John Breitner, Robert Lawrence, and Scott Zeger.

GUESTS: Drs. Marie Hardwick, Sharon Krag and Noel Rose; Ms Diane Glover; and Mssrs Rick Kafonek, Ross McKenzie and Michael Taylor.

MEETING CONVENED: Provost Steven Knapp convened the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 806th meeting on November 25, 1997 were approved.

Remarks by the Provost: Provost Knapp commented that there were several demonstrations of distance learning at the recent Board of Trustees meeting, and that there was much interest expressed by members of the Board in the University in moving forward with distance learning activities. Dr. Knapp congratulated the School of Hygiene and Public Health for taking a leadership role in distance learning across the University.

Dr. Knapp remarked that East Baltimore's comprehensive health care initiative will target the areas of sexually transmitted disease, violence, drug abuse and tuberculosis.

The initiative will recognize the mutually supporting values of research and provision of care. The initiative will move forward and will begin to identify faculty in the School in each area of effort. Dr. Knapp recognized key contributions by SHPH faculty in the initiative thus far.

Remarks by the Dean: Dean Sommer reminded the group that a town meeting on the ethics of conducting clinical trials in developing countries would be held later in the day at the School. He announced that Professor Sam Shapiro, the minister of health of China, and the president of Germany (who is a former minister of health of that country) will be awarded honorary degrees at University commencement in May. Dr. Sommer then announced several recent large gifts to the School, and noted that construction on the new addition is expected to begin during the summer of 1998, with completion approximately two years from now. Dr. MacKenzie remarked that the CEPH accreditation self-study is due in a year and will be followed up by a site visit. She will convene a faculty steering committee to guide the self-study, and will contact chairs and faculty to discuss membership on the committee. Steering committee members will help formulate the agenda for the February 21 retreat. Mr. Ross McKenzie and Mr. Michael Taylor then joined the meeting. Mr. McKenzie updated the members of the Advisory Board about the need for increased security as a result of an attempted infiltration of the School's computer system by an external person or group. Additional security measures will help prevent future similar situations. Mr. McKenzie will continue to update faculty, staff and students about this situation.

OTHER ITEMS

Ph.D. in the basic sciences of public health
Dr. Marie Hardwick joined the group. She described the interest of the School's basic science faculty in developing a doctoral program to bridge and strengthen basic science training across the School. Students would be admitted to a department and also would be part of a larger cohesive activity. She referred to two examples of interdepartmental doctoral programs in the School of Medicine. She then described several advantages of a broad interdepartmental doctoral program in the School, including: joint and more efficient student recruitment; a core curriculum with a broad array of electives; available faculty expertise from several departments and a diversity of disciplines enabling the student to have more flexibility; a joint seminar series; and social functions. Each student would be part of a larger group of students and faculty with related interests.

The School of Public Health is particularly suited to this activity due to efficiencies that will be realized by consolidating efforts across the departments. In addition, career opportunities specifically for basic scientists who have public health backgrounds and more competitive funding for students will be identified.

An initial meeting of several departments produced a number of subsequent actions. Dr. Hardwick noted that faculty from two departments have already met to assess the feasibility of joint student recruitment efforts, a student committee to invite external speakers has been organized, and a core discussion group for public health students taking courses in the School of Medicine has begun. Commitments from each of the departments offering training in basic sciences is needed, as well as mechanisms to bridge to other disciplines in public health such as epidemiology.

Dr. Rose suggested that there are other types of students who may be interested in an interdepartmental program in the basic sciences of public health. They are students who have had an "evangelical" experience working overseas and wish to better prepare themselves to prevent disease worldwide. These students may not in general seek traditional academic positions. Training in the basic sciences with a population perspective would offer them unique skills and equip them for positions in public health laboratories. Dr. Breitner suggested that medical doctors who want retraining might also be interested in this type of program.

After further discussion, the Advisory Board thanked Dr. Hardwick and will look for progress reports on this effort.

Matthews Medical Bookstore

Mr. Rick Kafonek, manager of the Matthews Medical Bookstore, joined the group. He affirmed the Bookstore's commitment to serving faculty, students and staff of the SHPH, and stated that the Bookstore plans to expand its selection over time if the need can be demonstrated. He commented that the Bookstore must work with book publishers and distributors, so that timely sharing of information with the Bookstore about course needs by instructors will help alleviate delays in filling those needs. He advised the Advisory Board that faculty should gain permission from publishers to include previously copyrighted material such as journal articles in course packets in order to reproduce those materials. The Bookstore works closely with an external company to obtain copyright permission and copy course packets, however, this service can be costly. Dr. Sommer asked Mr. Herb Hansen and Ms. Sandra Coleman to investigate cost-effective ways to obtain copyright clearances and copy course packets. After further discussion, the Advisory Board thanked Mr. Kafonek for his report. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

© 1997 The Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. All rights reserved.
Last updated by dgips@jhu.edu