SOUTH BEND Dr. Rudolph Navari will step down in April as dean and director of Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend to take a new job with the World Health Organization.

Navari has led the medical school program here since its new building at Notre Dame Avenue and Angela Boulevard opened in 2005. The program is a partnership with the University of Notre Dame.

With WHO, Navari will be based in Geneva, Switzerland, and will serve as director of the Cancer Care Program in Eastern Europe. WHO will work with pharmaceutical companies to help cancer patients and provide treatments at a greatly reduced cost in eastern European nations.

It was just an opportunity I couldnt pass up, Navari said Tuesday. Hes worked in South Bend since 1999, when he joined the Notre Dame faculty as director of Walther Cancer Research Center.

In 2005, he was named director of the IU School of Medicine program here, and has continued as a researcher and an adjunct Notre Dame faculty member. Hes also a practicing oncologist.

IU medical students have been able to take their first two years of training in South Bend since 1971 through a joint program run by IU School of Medicine and Notre Dame. The program has grown and changed and gained greater visibility in the community.

Since that time, 10 to 12 new IU teaching professors have been hired who also conduct medical research in collaboration with Notre Dame researchers, Navari said. Weve developed a significant collaboration with Notre Dames colleges of science and engineering, he said.

Under Navaris leadership, the medical school training program also grew from a two-year to a four-year program. That means students can complete all four years of medical school here, and dont have to transfer to Indianapolis for their last two years. That makes it more likely those graduates will stay and practice in the South Bend area. The expansion to a four-year program started six years ago.

The total number of medical students here has grown, as well. In 2005, there were about 32 medical students in the South Bend program, and now there are more than 100.

Annual research grants to the South Bend medical program faculty have grown from about $500,000 to about $2 million annually.

Visit link:

Navari leaving IU medical school here