How Do We Go First?

What does Going First mean to Mountaineers?

At WVU Health Sciences, we believe that the future of great medical centers is to solve real problems and improve the health of our citizens. We can do this by creating a true learning health system. What is this? How will we get there?

Let’s start with a few simple principles:

1. We will solve real problems faced by real people.
   1. Research will be the solution shop.
   2. Clinical Medicine will be the implementation shop.
   3. Education will be the dissemination shop.
2. We will partner with anyone who can help us tangibly improve the health of our citizens.
   1. Not compete, but partner. Not demand credit, but be happy to be a member of a great team focused on helping others.
3. We will move quickly and make it easy to partner with us.
   1. We will look toward long-term return on investment, building talent and sharing whatever we can to improve the health of our state’s citizens.
4. We will be faithfully honest.
5. We will never make a promise we do not intend to keep.
6. We will create a learning health system. This will require us to create a highly functional infrastructure that facilitates discovery and makes committing to clinical research with people easy.
7. We will offer solutions.
   1. We will freely share with others important information that can facilitate improving our citizen’s lives, while maintaining our commitment to protecting information that is delineated in agreements with our partners.
   2. Our guiding light is the commitment of tangibly improving the health of our citizens.
8. We will open up our fixed assets (doctors, researchers, facilities, etc.) to selected entrepreneurs, businesses, and partners to bring talent and culture to West Virginia, while delivering their solutions to our patients and citizens first.
9. We will build a culture of service, purpose, doing, learning, compassion, and truth.
   1. We will fail often – fail forward and learn. Over time, our combined effort will lead us to real solutions that do not exist today.
   2. We will earn trust, put safety first and always seek to help people with the highest quality, compassion, and commitment.
   3. We will recognize that we take the biggest risk when we do not help because we will miss opportunities to assist West Virginia citizens be healthier. Not helping means we miss our chance to light a beacon for the world.
10. We will invest in our team first, build family, and treat our customers like they are family. Happy and satisfied people provide the best customer service.
11. We will lead and Go First.  

As Steve Jobs said, “Real artists ship.” We believe that by committing to a single purpose of tangibly improving the lives of our citizens, we will rally our team around a goal greater than any one of us. Improvement in this parameter will enhance the quality of life for our citizens, the economic outlook for our state, and the brand of WVU and West Virginia.

In addition, as Harry Truman said, it is amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t worry about who gets the credit. While we are sanguine to the importance of building the brand of WVU, our belief is that delivering real solutions to the health problems of our population will have the most resounding impact on brand and value for our customers.

We are creating a better life for West Virginia and for our globe – Going First, developing a true learning health center, and starting the future of medicine in Morgantown.

As Henry Ford said:

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t -- you’re right!”