KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Barbara Atkinson has a vision for the Kansas University Medical Center, and she wants to tell everyone about it.

It’s a vision of increasing research ties to give patients access to more clinical trials. It involves improving clinical facilities to make them more welcoming. It involves retooling the education curriculum to give future doctors the most up-to-date information.

Above all, it involves catapulting the Med Center’s reputation beyond just the Kansas City area. “We’re really ready to move the Medical Center toward more regional and national prominence,” Atkinson said. “You have to let a vision rise up.”

Atkinson, 61, will be formally installed today as executive vice chancellor of the Med Center.

She re-places Don Hagen, who retired Dec. 31 after 10 years.

She will be in charge of 2,500 faculty and staff at the schools of medicine, allied health and nursing, and will oversee a $317.8 million annual budget. She also will be one of only 11 women in the nation serving as dean of a medical school, KU officials say.

Atkinson has been at KU since 2000, when she was hired to lead the department of pathology and laboratory medicine. Two years later, she replaced Deborah Powell as medical school dean when Powell left to take over at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

Atkinson will continue as dean of the School of Medicine in addition to her executive vice chancellor duties, making her the first KU administrator to have both positions.

Atkinson has set priorities for the Med Center. On the education side, she lists a curriculum overhaul that will be phased in over the next two years as a top priority. The new curriculum for medical students includes more computer-based training and more interdisciplinary courses.

In the area of research, construction will be complete on a $42 million bioscience research facility in October 2006, and Atkinson still hopes to hire 20 additional faculty members to help fill it. The School of Medicine already has created 100 additional faculty positions since Atkinson took over.

She’s also hoping the Med Center can strengthen its ties to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo., which focuses on genetic and protein research. And KU’s Kansas Masonic Cancer Institute is working toward receiving official designation from the National Cancer Institute, which would allow it to receive more federal funds and qualify to hold more trials for cancer patients.

In the clinical arena, she’s hoping to secure private funding for a new $40 million building to house the clinical services provided by KU Physicians Inc., whose members also serve as the teaching faculty for the School of Medicine. The clinics currently are spread throughout the University of Kansas Hospital building, which is affiliated with the schools Atkinson now oversees.