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SO. CAROLINA: USC and MUSC Form S.C. Health Sciences Collaborative With 10-year, $160 Million Plan Monday, Apr 26, 2004 Efforts aimed at health sciences Hospitals, colleges team to bring jobs, scientists By Linda H. Lamb - Knight Ridder COLUMBIA - South Carolina's job market, research institutions and people all will be healthier if a 10-year, $160 million plan does what it's supposed to do. Two of the state's largest hospital systems, along with the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina, will announce today that they are forming the S.C. Health Sciences Collaborative. Their plan is to fund health sciences research in the state, each to the tune of $2 million a year. That's $80 million over 10 years - which they hope to double to $160 million through matching money from the state's Research Centers of Economic Excellence Act. Additional matching money will be sought from federal and private sources. The goal is to attract scientists, create jobs and spur life-saving research into diseases that plague the state's people. "Economics matters, and the research is inherently important, but this could change people's lives," said Kester Freeman, chief executive of Columbia-based Palmetto Health. Yet a lot of questions must be answered before any sick South Carolinian sees benefits from the collaboration, which also includes the Greenville Hospital System. State's selling points Dr. Mark George is a psychiatrist, neurologist and brain-imaging researcher in Charleston. He and his colleagues at MUSC's Brain Stimulation Laboratory study MRI imaging and trans-cranial magnetic stimulation and are pursuing insights on ailments such as depression, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and addiction. All researchers want to work with good institutions, facilities and people. And George said South Carolina has several things going for it. Not least is its location in the Sun Belt, he said. "We heavily recruit people from Pittsburgh and Detroit during January and February," he said. Quality-of-life issues, such as shorter commute times, also are important to some scientists relocating with their families. Researchers who have studied under scientists at large institutions might have to leave to advance their own careers. George said those people could find opportunities in South Carolina - where, for example, USC is building a 5-million- square-foot research campus. "Sometimes it's appealing to be a big fish in a small pond, to feel you could make more of a difference, to get to go eat with the [university] president," George said. "That would be hard to do at Yale." Finally, while "collaboration" might be one of those buzz words academics like to say and politicians like to hear, true collaboration across institutions is exciting and unusual, George said. George's brain-imaging work is one research area slated to benefit from the collaborative plan. His lab already is working with colleagues at USC to develop brain-imaging facilities here that will complement the work at MUSC. The two labs swap questions and ideas weekly through videoconferencing. By working together, George said, "we can compete directly with Cal Tech and Harvard." Private funding The collaborative group plans to tap private funding sources such as pharmaceutical companies and federal grants from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. A challenge for the institutions here, however, will be to keep the talent the state manages to attract. These scientists attract talented co-workers, bright students and voluminous grant money. And they can generate bidding wars as would-be employers promise sweet salaries, more staff and top-flight facilities. USC lost a celebrated nanoscience researcher, Jim Tour, to Rice University a few years ago. He took with him millions of dollars in grants, along with 20 research personnel. USC President Andrew Sorensen says the endowed chairs program and collaborative approach will help South Carolina attract and keep top-notch people. "We think that as we get this momentum built up, success will breed success," he said. The boards of all four institutions will have to OK the new group. Possible projects: Organizers said various projects could demonstrate economic benefits for the state, a requirement to qualify for matching state money: Clinical trials could employ people to run the studies, recruit and deal with patients, and crunch the data. Biotechnology projects could employ researchers and ultimately manufacturing workers. Health services research, such as developing software to protect medical privacy, could draw jobs such as health insurance and claims processing. SOURCE: Knight Ridder / Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/8521625.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn