The Feeding Frenzy Has Begun

... and it's all about the research money:

"An e-mail sent Wednesday to top Feinberg faculty from Rex L. Chisholm, dean of research, included an attachment that lists 29 researchers employed by Evanston Northwestern who draw federal research dollars. Those people will lose their Northwestern faculty positions as the affiliation is unwound over the next year.

“The dean’s office is interested in hearing from you if you have interest in exploring the possibility of recruiting any of them to NU,” Dr. Chisholm’s message says. He requests “a guesstimate of the resources that might be required to successfully move them to NU.”

About 700 of Northwestern’s 3,000 full- and part-time faculty work at Evanston Northwestern. The three-hospital system has its own research enterprise — it received more than $100 million in external grant money in 2007 — and competes with Northwestern for federal funding."

-Wes

Ending an Era

It's official: ENH and Northwestern are parting. It's a sad day, really. The relationship, while strained, was a good one in many ways for both parties. But business is business, and the complexities of the ever-changing Chicago healthcare market have strained the marriage to its breaking point.

Now ENH must choose a new name, change its stationary, find a new academic partner, re-establish some 180 academic appointments, re-certify its training programs, and work toward re-branding itself.

It'll be interesting, to say the least. I'll be interested to see what the community thinks...

-Wes

Addendum: More from the Chicago Tribune.