Thoughts at the beginning of the term

131 Thoughts at the beginning of the term The mission I was assigned, that of leading the biggest and the oldest school of medicine in Romania, is an honorable task, but, in the same time, it is very difficult. First, because we are going through a complex period, in which a change is requested and, most importantly is needed, but the reforms are, very often, misunderstood or inapplicable, and the future depends on their approach and implementing. The essential changes must be identified starting from the realistic estimation of their utility and complexity, the change in the medical world requiring the identification of new methods of innovation in the healthcare services provision. Secondly, because “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy is an inexhaustible reservoir of reference medical personalities in the Romanian Medicine, it must keep on “blooming” at the same standards of professionalism and performance, an obligation that is extremely serious and difficult to achieve. Thirdly, as a result of the fact that I am the successor of a rector, who, in the two terms, the maximum permitted by the Romanian laws, has not only been respected but also loved by the entire academic community. Just as I promised, the fundamental objective of my preoccupations will be the acceleration of the efforts of transforming “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in an elite university, ranked in the top 500 universities of the world. I intend to do this by approaching a responsible, open and flexible attitude of the leaders of the universities at all the levels: discipline, department, university council or university senate, assuring a balance between tradition and innovation, academic excellence and clinical efficiency, the coherence of the curricula and the students’ freedom of choice, in order to form some competitive doctors, true professionals, capable of integrating in this perpetual competition in the fight for health. Ioanel Sinescu