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     Years ago, when people who lived in this area wanted the best specialized medical care, they made long journeys to well-known hospitals and clinics in other parts of the country or the world. There, they would seek the help of acclaimed specialists in their fields.
     Times have changed.

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     Thanks to the University Health Sciences Center, the finest health care professionals, programs, equipment, and facilities are now right here in our own backyard. People don’t have to leave this area to seek the best doctors and clinics anymore. To the contrary, hundreds of thousands of people come to the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics every year to find the best.
     In fact, we have become a major referral facility, serving people from Utah and the surrounding five states – a referral area encompassing more than 10 percent of the geographic span of the United States. Plus, we offer numerous specialty programs that attract patients not only from all corners of the nation, but from around the world. Hospital inpatient admissions, emergency department visits, on-campus clinic visits, and outpatient services now total more than 600,000 annually.     
     That’s only part of the story, however.
     While the University has been earning worldwide acclaim for its highly advanced specialty care, it has also been growing outward – extending its reach to take convenient, uncompromising primary health care to the communities in the area we serve. This year alone we added seven multi-specialty outpatient health centers to our network, and plans are on the drawing board for continued growth.     
     This has been an extremely busy and rewarding year. As we expand outward into the community, we continue to add new buildings and facilities to our main campus. Our team of health care professionals is growing larger, too. We now have more than 800 board-certified physicians to meet the rising demand on our services.
     Each of our colleges has been a hive of intense activity and development. As their reputation grows, so does competition for enrollment. We hope to obtain funding for additional professional program student positions, but at present, for every Utah spot in our medical school there are between six and seven Utahns who apply. In the physical therapy program, there is one spot for every 14 applicants. Only one out of every 19 applicants is accepted into our dental program.
     The baccalaureate program of the College of Nursing is extremely competitive with three applicants for each opening. This college offers the only program in the state of Utah that is able to educate the nursing faculty of the future, conferring master- and doctoral-level degrees. Of the college’s nursing graduates, 90 percent stays in Utah.
     In the College of Pharmacy – the state’s only program capable of educating future pharmacy faculty members – two to three Utah residents apply for every student opening. Almost 100 percent of the students in each College of Pharmacy class are from Utah. More than 70 percent of all practicing pharmacists in the state are University of Utah graduates.
     As you’ll read in this annual report, our efforts to provide the finest health care have not gone unnoticed. We have earned accolades and honors from a number of prestigious outside sources. This report will also highlight a few of the exciting advances we have made – specific reasons why the University Health Sciences Center is attracting national and international attention.
     This kind of achievement and growth – both on and off our main campus – requires financial strength. I am happy to report that the University Health Sciences Center is fiscally sound. Private gifts play an indispensable role in our strength. This year alone, generous individuals donated a total of over $49 million to help us continue our quest for excellence. Some gifts are large. Others are small. All are appreciated. We have taken the opportunity to introduce you to a few of these wonderful people in this report.
     One final word. The University Health Sciences Center is not just an excellent clinical health care facility. It is first and foremost a teaching and research institution. Our doctors are not just clinicians – they are teachers and researchers as well. That’s why the most advanced medical treatments reach the bedside first right here. But our health care professionals provide much more than technical excellence. They offer caring, personalized concern, and a deep respect for the dignity and well-being of every patient. This human touch, combined with our expertise and facilities, enables the University Health Sciences Center to provide the highest quality of health care.

John M. Matsen, M.D.
Senior University Vice President for Health Sciences
and Dean, School of Medicine

     The life of Dr. "Nif" Hicken – a man who has lived through every year of this century – reads like a Hollywood movie script.
     It began when a young boy was taken in and raised by his grandfather in Heber City, Utah. He grew up and became the class president at the University of Utah in 1925, attended the University’s two-year medical college, and earned his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.
     During his residency at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Hicken worked alongside a world-renowned surgeon who attracted famous and sometimes infamous patients. Among the many celebrities he treated was the right-hand man to the most famous mobster of the 1930s. There were times when circumstances forced the young physician to perform surgery incognito, even in the crossfire of a mob shootout.
     When Dr. Hicken and his wife Alta returned to Salt Lake City in 1939, there were few hospitals, so he traveled from one small town to another to perform surgeries by appointment. Not only did he develop a highly successful practice as a physician and surgeon, he also became a researcher with over 100 published articles, and is known as a pioneer of modern gall bladder surgery. He was also a much-honored pioneer of mammography, and published some of the first articles in the United States on the subject, beginning in 1934. His local, national, and international awards, appointments, and recognitions are too numerous to list.
     Dr. Hicken’s first wife, Alta Thomas Hicken, earned her master’s degree from the University of Utah and became a teacher. She passed away in 1983. Margarete "Maggie" Stahl Wilkin married Dr. Hicken in 1984, and has been active in community services, including the YWCA.
     Over the years, Dr. Hicken has helped many medical students with loans for tuition, remembering the financial help he received from his grandfather and father-in-law. This year, his generous gift created The Dr. Nymphus Frederick Hicken, Alta Thomas Hicken, and Margarete Stahl Wilken Hicken Endowed Chair in Family and Preventive Medicine to support an outstanding physician and researcher.

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