This extensive article chronicles the current relationship between Wayne State University's School of Medicine and The Detroit Medical Center. The more than 50-year-old relationship is at risk, according to the story, because both institutions have taken different paths to compete. Continuing the financial recovery at the DMC relies on enticing paying patients from the suburbs to its specialty hospitals downtown with a unique set of services, said system President and CEO Mike Duggan - a plan that he said is compromised by Wayne State physicians' "suburban plan." But $50 million in new federal funding and meeting its educational mission hinges on Wayne State's ability to forge affiliations with suburban systems, medical school Dean Robert Mentzer said. Mentzer said the school must form stronger affiliations with other systems to remain competitive for new funding from the National Institutes of Health. That agency is prioritizing its funding around 50 institutions that can prove they are focusing on broad-based interdisciplinary research aimed at getting new treatments more quickly to patients' bedsides. Shoring up support for residency programs the DMC no longer wants is also a top priority, Mentzer said. "The DMC has said unequivocally that they don't want" departments such as family medicine, he said, a program that's vital to the medical school's educational mission. Both sides say they have little choice but to hold their ground, but the Wayne State Board of Governors and the DMC board are to meet Wednesday to discuss their differences. A synopsis of the current contract is also provided in the piece.