I recently visited the nearly 140,000-acre Philmont Scout Ranch just outside Cimarron, New Mexico, where leaders of the KU School of Medicine were invited to help dedicate the new health lodge. This beautiful ranch was the perfect place to consider the power of partnerships.

As a youth, the Boy Scouts were an important part of my life. When I was at Philmont, I couldn’t help but think about how much the Boy Scouts and KU Medical Center have in common. Both build new skills and character in young people, both understand real-life experience is the best teacher, both know the importance of being prepared and both understand the value of the buddy system.

The Boy Scouts and KU Medical Center are buddies who have supported each other for 51 years. During that time, KU medical students, working under the supervision of KU faculty members, have served as the drivers and medics for the health lodge at Philmont. Nearly 20,000 scouts and their leaders and over 1,000 staff members are annually served by the health lodge and the KU students benefit from the opportunity to learn first-hand from the cases presented in a wilderness setting. The Jayhawks at Philmont admit that this rotation is one of their favorites, and the Scouts agree that Philmont is a safer and better place because of the KU partnership. Everybody wins.

The KU Medical Center benefits from so many equally important partnerships and collaborations it would be simply impossible to recount them all in the limited space of this magazine. But these partnerships make us what we are, and that is why this issue, The Partners Issue, was created.

Partners come in many forms. Some are valued institutions who link arms with us in our quest to enhance health. Others are donors who find a way to fuel our efforts through their charitable giving. Some are alumni and friends who agree to help teach and mentor our students. Some are public servants who work to lengthen our reach and deepen our footprint. We celebrate all of them in this issue by telling the stories of just a representative few.

As a Boy Scout I was taught to “do a good turn daily.” Thanks to the generosity, partnership and collaboration of those who share our path, KU Medical Center is able to do just that. Like the scouts at Philmont, that makes all of us at the Medical Center a grateful group of happy campers.







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