As many of you know, Dean Rothman and I now are leading the search for someone to succeed me as president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. I have headed the hospital for 19 years and believe it is time to hand over its reins.

This does not mean I am leaving Johns Hopkins Medicine. Far from it. I will remain president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and continue serving as executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, working closely with Dean Rothman to advance all the initiatives in the six-point Strategic Plan we formulated in 2013 to improve every aspect of what we do.

That is why I have been exceptionally pleased to read the new 2016 Biennial Report, with its exciting descriptions of all the impressive, tangible successes we collectively have achieved in support of our Strategic Plan goals. It is really worth a look: http://bit.ly/2016biennial.

Our goal to attract, engage, develop and retain the world’s best employees involves not only focusing on our 41,000-strong workforce but supporting nearly 500 programs that serve Baltimore’s communities. Of special note is the launch of HopkinsLocal, a university- and health systemwide program that commits us to building, hiring and buying locally. When our communities thrive, we truly are uplifted.

Stunning examples of how we are fulfilling our goal of becoming an exemplar of biomedical research include efforts to develop a simple blood test for the detection of cancers in certain organs far earlier than even the most sophisticated imaging devices achieve; using one’s own immune system to destroy HIV which causes AIDS; and revolutionizing how we improve health and treat diseases through “precision medicine,” the analysis of the individual genetic conditions behind a person’s illness.

We are making great strides in attaining our goal of becoming a national leader in patient- and family-centered care with significant improvements in facilities throughout our system, from East Baltimore to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Sibley Memorial Hospital and Suburban Hospital. We did astounding work responding to the Ebola virus disease outbreak, hosted an event at which 3-D printed prosthetic hands were created for more than 200 children and adults, and have reached more than 80,000 patients in Baltimore City and the surrounding areas in the Johns Hopkins Community Health Partnership.

To achieve our goal of leading the world in the education and training of physicians and biomedical scientists, we admitted an extremely diverse group of medical students in the Class of 2018, remain among the top-ranked residency programs in the country, welcomed our second residency class at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, and have conducted research that has led to more than 50 ways for reducing or eliminating unnecessary or wasteful medical tests or procedures.

The report also cites work we are doing to promote the goal of integrating services throughout the system and thinking more collaboratively across institutions to better care for our patients everywhere. Increasingly, Johns Hopkins Medicine is developing an academically based, integrated health care delivery and financing system.

I would urge everyone to check out the Biennial Report online. It is user-friendly, has something of interest to everyone and offers you an opportunity to learn about what we are doing to continue delivering on the promise of Johns Hopkins Medicine.