2006 Institute Annual Report > Leadership Letter

Letter from leaders

When we talk about the unique role, values and spirit of Park Nicollet Institute, the words innovation, excellence, learning and improvement come up time and time again. In the past year, “acceleration” surfaced as a word that captures the Institute’s determination to translate innovation into practice as quickly as possible.

We identify so deeply with these words, we made them the focus of our revised mission and vision. Our mission: to care for and support the health, healing and learning of those we serve through excellence in research and education. Our vision: accelerate innovation, learning and improvements in health.

At first, “accelerate” may feel at odds with the steadfast reflection needed for research, the cogent prose needed for writing or the steady delivery needed for teaching. Nevertheless, as the global output of new information expands, the need for leadership in translating new knowledge into practice intensifies.

There are more than 16,000 scientific journals worldwide, publishing about 1.4 million peer-reviewed papers per year. Yet, it takes up to 17 years for new findings to become a routine part of medical practices.

That is why everyone in the Institute strives every day to deliver the new knowledge needed to improve clinical practice, inform best organizational practices for health systems, and support new health practices for patients. Our new vision matches our conviction that we must not waste any time or resources making discoveries accessible to those we serve sooner than anyone else in the world.

As part of Park Nicollet Health Services, we support its vision to create greater value for patients and their families. This means measuring and reporting outcomes and making care more affordable and timely. Accordingly, the Institute has focused on reducing lead-time in research and education; building capacity and support for outcomes measurement; and increasing the proportion of our work in patient-centered care and chronic disease prevention and management.

As we test our leadership in accelerating innovation, we are eager to have those we serve take the lead in setting our research and education agenda. We anticipate being humbled every day at how much there is to learn and by how accountable we must hold ourselves to spread our findings without delay.

David Abelson, MD Chairman Board of Directors	Paul Terry, PhD President and Chief Executive Officer