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Medical school launches UBMD
Brand identity for faculty practice plans aims to improve patient care, teaching
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on Monday launched "UBMD," the brand identity developed for the school's faculty practice plans.
David Dunn (left), vice president for health sciences, sports a lab coat bearing the new UBMD logo. President John B. Simpson (right) attended one of the three sessions held on Monday to introduce the UBMD brand and accompanying logo.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI
Connecting the 18 practice plans under the UBMD brand will provide "better patient care, better teaching, better research and better clinical care," said David L. Dunn, vice president for health sciences, who introduced the new brand and logo at three presentations for members of the UB community—two in the Biomedical Education Building on the South Campus and one in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.
A practice plan is the mechanism by which university-affiliated physicians, under contract with the university, treat private patients and agree to return a certain portion of their clinical practice revenues to the university to support essential, but non-revenue-producing aspects of the medical school, such as basic-science education. Each clinical department maintains its own practice plan, and the 18 individual plans are managed by UB Associates, a separate non-profit organization.
"What's in a name?" Dunn asked, paraphrasing Shakespeare's Juliet. "There's a lot in a name. Part of it is branding recognition," he said, pointing out that everyone makes choices every day, such as what car to drive to work or what clothes to wear.
Dunn, who said he grew up in the Detroit area and for a time worked on an automobile assembly line, used the automotive analogy to explain the importance of brands.
"The analogy that's typically used is, 'Do we want to be a Model T or do we want to be a Cadillac?' he said.
"You all get it right away when I say that. That's branding recognition."
So, what's UBMD?
"The importance of this is 450 physicians working together, working collectively. Why should we do this?" he asked. "I think you all know the answer. We want to provide the best patient care for individuals here in Western New York and beyond. We want to work together to do clinical research, basic science research. We want to educate the next generation of health-care practitioners," he said.
"I would hazard a guess, and I think all of you would agree, that we would be a lot stronger working together, again in a connected fashion."
The UBMD logo is "quite distinctive," he said, pointing out that the dots, which, he noted, resemble a molecular structure, are connected and work together, The logo will be featured on letterhead and lab coats, as well as other items, like coffee mugs and pens.
"Our intention is to really create an esprit de corps; figure out how we can work together better," he said.
Dunn related a conversation he said he had had with a well-respected member of the medical school faculty, who said he rarely received requests for consultations from other UB physicians.
"I think that's a shame. We have a lot of expertise in that area," he said, noting that faculty members should be talking to each other about patients and thinking about how to provide better patient care and how to teach and conduct research in clinical teams.
"We want everybody to think how we can best work together, how we can be connected and how we can improve all the things all of you know so well," Dunn added.
"I see this (UBMD rollout) as the first step in an important process where we begin working more closely together."