Dr. Ray Greenberg on MUSC

March 15, 2011: Rotarian Julie Medich introduced today’s speaker, MUSC President, Dr. Ray Greenberg, beginning with his impressive educational biography including such institutions as Duke University, Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Before joining the Medical University of South Carolina in 1995 as the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Greenberg serviced on the medical school faculty at Emory and was the founding dean of the Rollins School of Public Health. Julie concluded her introduction on a personal note, as his Sullivan Island neighbor, she described Dr. Greenberg as a gray hoodie wearing, Arts & Crafts furniture designer and neighborhood animal lover.

Although mourning the loss of his beloved UNC Tar Heels, Dr. Greenberg began his presentation with a smile and a sincere thank you to all Rotarians and their national and international contributions to those in need, stating “I never turn Rotary down.” In addition to his sincerity, Dr. Greenberg was also quite comedic as he pondered the reasons why MUSC was not included in this year’s March Madness. After recognizing Rotarians Chip Hood and Tom Anderson as MUSC’s important leaders, Dr. Greenberg’s comedy continued as he told us “what he was not going to tell us,” by cleverly listing MUSC facts such as their 12,000 employees, $2 billion a year finances, 7th place ranking, largest research grant recipient in SC, etc. and ending with “…because you already know!”

Although his MUSC statistics were impressive, Dr. Greenberg continued his presentation with a dose of reality as he explained the Innovative Activity Score Card and Charleston’s low ranking. The Innovative Activity Index is essential because, as the Score Cards states: “The ability to generate new ideas, products and processes is an important measure of regional competitive advantage. An environment of innovation encourages the launch of new businesses, provides growth opportunities for existing businesses, and attracts leading-edge businesses from outside the area. The result: new, higher paying jobs for area residents.” The index’s indicators include patents, employment in technical professions and science-related graduate students. Although Charleston’s “half the national average” score of 52 is not optimal, Dr. Greenberg explained that growing innovations such as the new SCRA MUSC Innovation Center, Clemson’s building of the world’s largest test facility for next-generation wind turbine drive trains and MUSC’s Hollings Caner Center now ranking as a National Cancer Institute (NCI) are vital “seed” factors that will help Charleston economic activity grow.

Charleston scored a 93 on the Entrepreneurial Environment Index and although it is an improvement from the Innovative Activity score, the less than the national average score still shows there is a vital need for growth. Dr. Greenberg explained MUSC’s important role in helping “to grow the seed corn” of Charleston by “transferring technology” and working across disciplines with locally based, national companies, such as Berchtold Corp. and Sabal Medical Inc./Swisslog. With these strategic corporate alignments, MUSC can “help Charleston achieve its full potential” and aspire to be an economic leader.

Dr. Greenberg concluded his presentation with a brief question and answer session discussing the following topics: the importance of federal funding to “help curtail this drunken binge of spending,” MUSC’s Level One Trauma Center’s full range of services , among other research programs as well as the TeleStroke program.

Submitted by Teal Van Saun, Keyway Committee