By virtue of legacy and location, the Miller School of Medicine has long been a part of the medical community in Latin -America and the Caribbean.

Now with this year’s launch of the University of Miami International Medicine Institute, the school is not only on a path to serve more people and offer more medical services in the region, it is aiming to become truly international with facilities and affiliations as far as Asia and the Middle East.

The mission: education, clinical care, and research on a more global scale.

“Since the launch there have been so many calls from people in different countries who want to establish partnerships with the University,” says institute director Eduardo de Marchena, M.D. “We have been having talks with people in the Bahamas, Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico. There’s interest from people in Asia and the Middle East and all over Latin America. And the dean is very interested in us working with certain hospitals in China.”

“This initiative fits with our overriding mission of being a global leader in cutting-edge clinical care, medical research, and education,” says Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., senior vice president for medical affairs and dean.

It will take some time for the UM Miller flag to fly in faraway countries, but existing close relationships with doctors in Latin America have given UM a push in this region. To that end, the institute is in serious negotiations with developers who are building a seaside medical complex in Cartagena, Colombia. If plans follow through, by 2009 the UM institute would be a partner in this new state-of-the-art hospital.

UM physicians would be able to practice in the facilities, and along with doctors from Colombia and other countries, would take part in continuing education there.

“We want to be an asset to the local community and neighboring countries,” says de Marchena, who is also chairman of the UM Medical Group, director of the cardiovascular center, and professor of medicine and surgery. “Our faculty is very international. They come from 68 countries, and they speak 39 languages.”

Also planned: a new International Research Center that will help coordinate clinical trials in various parts of the world, the Americas in particular.

The center will be based at the Miller School—but the first trials are likely to take place in Cali, Colombia, where the school has contacts with former fellows from the William J. Harrington Medical Training Programs, a highly successful partnership that enables participants to train at UM then bring the expertise back to their home countries in Latin America.