Over the past five years, University of Chicago Cancer Research Center (UCCRC) leadership changes, together with increased institutional commitment, have resulted in a renewed emphasis on strategic planning, as well as an enhancement and refinement of planning and evaluation mechanisms and activities. When Dr. Le Beau assumed the Directorship position in the spring of 2004, she immediately embarked on an extensive examination and evaluation of the Center, including the administrative structure, scientific programs, and cores. Participating in these reviews were the UCCRC senior leadership, External and Internal Advisors, Program Leaders, Core Directors, and other senior leaders in cancer research and care at the University of Chicago. The culmination of a UCCRC retreat held in July 2004, and a number of follow-up meetings was the development of a formal Strategic Plan. This plan, built on some of the previous UCCRC Director's initiatives, comprises a multitude of new goals, strategies, and recommendations. Following the 2004 Retreat, internal evaluation, and the 2005 and 2006 External Advisory Committee (EAC) meetings, planning and evaluation activities were established and/or refined, and include:(* denotes a new initiative): ? Twice monthly Executive Committee meetings*, ? Monthly Cancer Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings* and monthly Program Leader meetings*, ? Annual program retreats*, ? Five UCCRC Working Groups focusing on specific diseases or other key strategic cancer-related areas*, ? Annual full-day External Advisory Committee meeting, ? Formation of an Internal Advisory Committee, and annual 1/2 day meetings*, ? Quarterly meeting of the UCCRC Director with the Dean of the BSD (Dean Madara)*. In terms of scientific activities, EAC reviews together with internal planning mechanisms, resulted in the dissolution of the GU program, the expansion and renaming of Program 6: Cancer Risk and Prevention, key recruitments in population research (including an Associate Director for Population Research), and the development of a number of new core facilities (e.g., Drug Discovery and Development, Optical Imaging, Biomedical Informatics, Image Response Assessment). In addition, planning and evaluation activities led to significant increases in institutional commitment, greater authority of the Director, complete revamping of clinical trials infrastructure (purchase of Velos eResearch), enhancement of opportunities for intra- and interprogrammatic activity, and the new committee structure listed above.
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