By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
University of Kansas Medical Center Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson unveils the facility’s 10-year plan during a breakfast meeting at Kansas Life Sciences Innovation Center on the center’s campus. The plan calls for spending $800 million on more than 200 faculty positions and a major expansion of facilities. (Dave Ranney/KHI)
KANSAS CITY, KAN., June 19
The University of Kansas Medical Center today unveiled its 10-year plan for becoming one of the nation”s top centers for life-science research. It would be an $800 million effort to add 900,000 square feet in new research facilities and quadruple research spending.
But Kansas House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, who attended the ceremony, said he wasn”t impressed.
The plan is sure to be a boon for Kansas City
both the Kansas and Missouri sides
but the rest of Kansas, he said, would get little more than a handshake.
Wichita, he said, is especially slighted. The medical center has a branch in Wichita and multiple research alliances with local hospitals and Wichita State University. That all was overlooked in the grand plan, he said.
“This kind of thing is going to have some problems in the Legislature,” Neufeld predicted. “We need to use the resources we have
in Kansas,” he said. “What I see here is one plan after another to keep things at KU and not go statewide.”
Neufeld was irked the plan called for cooperation with the Missouri-based St. Luke”s Hospital, Truman Medical Center, Children”s Mercy hospitals and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research but failed to mention the ongoing research at the medical center”s Wichita campus, WSU, and the Via Christi Health Systems” research centers.
Neufeld has been an
outspoken critic
of the KU medical center”s overtures to St. Luke”s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. The proposed affiliation, he said, would harm the University of Kansas Hospital.
He chided medical center executive vice chancellor, Dr. Barbara Atkinson, for “ignoring” Wichita during her 30-minute presentation before an audience of about 80 university officials, medical center faculty, civic leaders and legislators.
But Atkinson disputed Neufeld”s assessment.
The plan, titled “The Time is Now,” represented a “Kansas City vision,” she said. “Wichita is building their own vision as well, but they will clearly link to us for the public-health pieces, the cancer pieces, the education pieces
all of which will clearly link to Wichita and other hospitals in the state.”
The proposed expansion is sure to benefit both the state”s economy and the health of all its citizens, she said.
“We need to be figuring how we can do the financial plan to support our level of growth,” Atkinson said.
Plans call for the university and medical center officials approaching the Legislature, federal government, Kansas Bioscience Authority and the region”s philanthropic community for increased support.
Atkinson said the medical center now ranks 81st in National Institutes of Health Funding, receiving $45 million last year; Iowa ranked 30th with $137 million.
“We ought to be able to beat Iowa,” Atkinson said, prompting a chuckle from the audience.
The plan calls for spending:
*
$453.6 million on 244 junior and senior faculty positions;
*
$345 million on facilities in Kansas City and Lawrence.
Research would build on the university”s existing cancer, neuroscience, maternal, reproductive science, kidney, and liver research.
“Today, we”ve launched a vision for the next decade that builds upon our strengths, invests in new, emerging areas of medical research, provides the core facilities necessary for all of our research to thrive, and puts the patient first with a strong emphasis on drug development, drug discovery and clinical and transitional research,” said David Adkins, vice chancellor for external affairs at the medical center.
Adkins, a former legislator, said Neufeld”s criticism was understandable but off-target.
“The investments will have to be made here,” he said, “but the intent and the model are to spread the benefits throughout the state. This isn”t an either-or situation.”
Sen. Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe, praised the plan but said she, too, was disappointed it didn”t do more to include local communities.
“The question I have is: How does Olathe Medical Center get to be a part of this? Or how does (Topeka”s) Stormont Vail or Overland Park Regional?” Brownlee said.
“Those are the kinds of questions the Legislature is going to have.”
A copy of “The Time is Now” report is available on the medical center”s Web site,
www.kumc.edu
.
-Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.