Progress in the Heartland
A substantial grant from The Lutheran Foundation will establish
the Fort Wayne Center for Medical Education as a regional leader
in cardiovascular research.
Discovering new ways to diagnose and treat heart disease is an
altruistic goal from any point of view. But rather than just talk
about the merits of pursuing that goal, The Lutheran Foundation
and the IU School of Medicine Center for Medical Education at Fort
Wayne have unveiled a promising approach to advance cardiovascular
research.
Late last year, the Foundation took a large step toward that purpose
by making a $2 million grant to the center, thus establishing the
Northern Indiana Cardiovascular Research and Education Center. The
funding will enable the School to recruit a top-flight scientist
to participate in the program, hire additional technicians and purchase
sophisticated laboratory equipment and other technology.
Barth H. Ragatz, PhD, assistant dean and director of the IUSM Fort
Wayne Center, describes the Foundation’s action as having
“far-range value and vision.” The grant also will be
used to set up a cardiovascular health outreach and education program,
to provide continuing medical education for local physicians, and
to establish research fellowships.
Health care is one of the key areas of emphasis of the Lutheran
Foundation, says Executive Director Marcia Haaff, and establishing
the cardiovascular center also meshes well with the desires of the
person who made it possible. Funding came from the estate of Frances
Alene Collins, who specified that her donation to the foundation
be used exclusively for heart research.
The Lutheran Foundation was established in 1995 following the sale
of Fort Wayne’s Lutheran Hospital. Since then, the foundation
has awarded about $50 million through grants and charitable activities
to Lutheran Church congregations and to nonprofit organizations
in northeast Indiana.
As the research program grows, so too will alliances with local
medical institutions. Such collaborations will include, among others,
the Medical Group of Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne Cardiology and Indiana-Ohio
Heart.
Getting There
Establishment of the Northern Indiana Cardiovascular Research and
Education Center at Fort Wayne also advances the School toward its
goal of becoming a top ten public medical school. To reach that
tier, the School must find new ways to attract increased research
dollars – an estimated $500 million over the next several
years – from federal and state governments and private funding
sources.
This is becoming increasingly important as Indiana lawmakers grapple
with ongoing fiscal problems, a situation that has resulted in belt-tightening
measures at IUSM as well as other state-funded university programs.
Fort Wayne and the other medical education centers, for example,
lack sufficient discretionary funding to purchase new technology
and renovate and increase lab space – all of which are necessary
to land outside research funding.
A report by the Association of American Universities in 2000 shows
that nearly forty-two jobs are created in Indiana for every $1 million
of external research support.
The new cardiovascular program can make Fort Wayne a stronger spoke
in the IU School of Medicine’s research hub now developing
at the Indianapolis campus, Dr. Ragatz emphasizes. He is referring
to the School’s action plan of expanding its eight regional
campuses’ participation in the emerging life sciences industry
and research associated with the IU-based Indiana Genomics Initiative.
Historically the eight centers have, as intended, been education-focused.
That role is expected to expand under the “hub-and-spoke”
plan of enhancing each center’s research activities, all of
which are vital to develop a program that ultimately leads to better
health, better physicians and high economic impact throughout the
entire state of Indiana; Dr. Ragatz and other center directors hope
for their communities.
“A strong, far-reaching biomedical research program produces
a practicing physician who is best prepared to understand and to
apply the new medicine that has and will continue to become available
at a furious pace,” says IUSM Dean D. Craig Brater, MD, Walter
J. Daly Professor. “Establishment of the Northern Indiana
Cardiovascular Research and Education Center is a monumental step
in that direction.”
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