After months of rancor, Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center have intensified contract talks in hopes of ending a dispute that threatens to sever long-held ties between the institutions, push the health system back into financial turmoil and interfere with health care for Detroit \'s neediest residents. DMC President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Duggan on Thursday said the institutions have resolved key differences and that at least half a dozen negotiating sessions are scheduled in the next week. Failure to get a contract or extension by a March 31 deadline would mean an end to the 22-year relationship that pairs Wayne State \'s faculty, students and research power with the DMC\'s eight hospitals. The partnership is critical for many of the 250,000 Detroiters with little or no insurance. This week was critical because many of Wayne State\'s faculty physicians who work at DMC hospitals require three months\' notice if they are to be laid off. The medical school was prepared to send layoff or reassignment notices to 250 of Wayne \'s 750 faculty physicians by today, Wayne State School of Medicine Dean Robert Frank said in a letter to Duggan last month that was obtained by The Detroit News. The notices won\'t go out as long as talks remain productive, medical school spokesman Joe Michaels said Thursday. \"I\'m very confident we\'re going to have a contract in place,\" Duggan said. \"There\'s literally meetings going on daily, and it\'s going well.\" Wayne State \'s 750 faculty members are among the 3,000 doctors who practice medicine at the DMC. The two share research grants and WSU students are placed in internships and residencies at the DMC.