 In 2004, the U-M launched an ambitious $2.5 billion fund-raising campaign to
help secure its future well into the 21st century. Known as The Michigan Difference,
the fund-raising campaign celebrates all that is extraordinary about the University
of Michigan: the special spirit, loyalty, and exceptional capabilities that
define Michigan and distinguish it among the great public academic institutions
in America.
The Health System, including our top-ranked medical school, represents a significant
portion of the University of Michigan enterprise. In September we initiated
an advertising campaign to celebrate the Health System’s role in creating
the Michigan difference and to reinforce our position as a premier medical institution.
We set out to find the best examples of the Health System’s capabilities,
and the most illustrative patient stories, to represent our numerous strengths.
The result is a poignant portrayal of the challenges and achievements that are
quietly and heroically wrought each and every day on the Michigan medical campus.
Set to the backdrop of The Victors, the U-M’s legendary fight song, the
marketing campaign consists of print, radio and television advertisements appearing
first in the southeastern part of the state, and later in western Michigan.
What is so unique and wonderful about The Michigan Difference advertising campaign
is that it tells the real stories of patients and families, of faculty and staff.
Stories of uncommon courage and dedication. Of indomitable will and spirit.
Of realities and miracles. Everything that victors — that real, everyday
heroes — are made of.
It is at the level of individuals — physicians and researchers, faculty
members and students, residents and fellows, staff and patients — that
the Michigan difference is made real. Strides in biomedical research that translate
into tomorrow’s treatments and cures; innovations in education that help
train the best possible future physicians; clinical care sought not only by
patients in our home state, but indeed throughout the nation and the world:
each of these areas of accomplishment begins with a person who embodies the
Michigan difference in all they do. Collectively, these individuals —
each in his or her own special way, in collaboration across specialties and
even across disciplines such as chemistry and engineering — create the
critical mass of intellectual power that is, and always has been, brought to
bear on medicine at Michigan.
The Michigan difference is not automatic; rather, it results from exceptional
vision and painstaking effort to do the very best we can do, to be the very
best we can be, in the interest of health and well-being. The researcher working
late into the night on new directions in medical science. The tireless physician
meeting the medical needs of courageous patients. The faculty member who finds
innovative ways of engaging students who will one day inherit the responsibilities
of medical care for future generations. These are our conquering heroes, our
victors valiant, whose work often goes unheralded and largely unseen. This is
the dedicated, competitive, hard-working source of the Michigan difference in
medicine.
Every bit a part of that difference, too, are those who support our work and
our goals. From Michigan’s legislators to corporations and foundations
and individual donors, our public and private benefactors are crucial partners
in translating Michigan’s medical vision to everyday reality. Without
them, there would be no Michigan difference.
As much an effort to raise awareness of our valuable work and contributions
to medicine, The Michigan Difference marketing campaign pays well-deserved tribute
to the countless people who play their important part in what we do. Of them,
and of the fruits of their efforts and the medical milestones those efforts
enable, we can all take that special brand of Michigan pride that makes us the
leaders and best.
To each and to all, thank you.
Robert P. Kelch (M.D. 1967, Residency 1970)
U-M Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and CEO, U-M Health System
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