More research coming to OUHSC
Well, look for more high tech research space coming to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Campus. Sure, the 5th Building is now being built at the Research Park, and the addition to the Stanton L. Young Research Building is almost complete, but Dean McGee announced a new research and clinical building, directly next to its current facility at NW 10th and Lincoln Ave. Wow! It's great to see all of this high tech research expansion in our city. This means more high paying jobs!
By the way, this new structure will be built on the northwest corner of the current facility.
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"Dean McGee Eye Institute launches $30 million campaign to build research and clinical facility in Oklahoma City
Dean McGee Eye Institute launches $30 million campaign to build research and clinical facility in Oklahoma City
The Dean McGee Eye Institute, one of the nation’s top-tiered eye care and research centers, unveiled plans Monday to raise $30 million to build a 60,000 square foot research and clinical facility on its present site in the Oklahoma Health Center in Oklahoma City. The expansion would double the Institute’s research capacity and increase the number of patients the facility could serve by 40 percent.
“The new research and clinical facility underscores how the academic, science and medicine practiced at the Dean McGee Eye Institute continues to profoundly impact our community and beyond,” said James Tolbert, chairman of the Board of Directors. “We are probably one of Oklahoma’s best kept secrets. This Institute is poised to take a prominent role in the future and become one of the nation’s premier teaching, research and patient care facilities. Our recent national ranking as one of the top six Institutes in the nation testifies to the impressive work underway here in Oklahoma City.”
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it had awarded a grant to DMEI for $3.7 million to help fund the new research and clinical center.
"The public may know about the excellent care they receive at Dean McGee, but they may not know that scientists and doctors at the institute have made important contributions in developing sight-saving therapies for a number of previously untreatable and poorly understood eye diseases,” said Paul Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health. “By any measure, Dean McGee is one of the premier research institutions in the United States."
“In the past decade the Dean McGee Eye Institute has made it a priority to bring some of the nation’s finest research and clinical minds to our campus, resulting in an incredible leap from 64th in the nation in research support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to 6th in 2003,” said David Parke, M.D./DMEI President. “This building expansion campaign will allow us to accelerate that momentum and catapult the Institute to the very top of our profession in a few short years.”
The new four-story research and clinical center will reshape the appearance of the existing facility, which was built in 1975, and will expand the facility by a total of 60,000 square feet. The expansion will allow for an additional 46 percent more clinical space, 34 percent more area for research laboratories and 20 percent additional space for offices and conference rooms.
"Every successful core scientific region in America was built around the pillar of a significant center of excellence - it is clear that in Oklahoma that one of those centers for excellence is the Dean McGee Eye Institute,” Tolbert said. “The success in recruiting some of the nation's leading research and clinical minds, drawing world-class research grants and being a premier training facility for the next generation of ophthalmologists is drawing the attention of the biotech world - and ultimately their capital - to Oklahoma City."
Over the past decade, DMEI’s research group has experienced the fastest rate of research growth of any major American eye institute. Support from NIH and other foundations has helped Oklahoma scientists delve into the causes and cures of such diseases as macular degeneration – the number one blinding disease in America and diabetic retinopathy –the number one blinding disease of working Americans. With added space DMEI researchers can explore projects such as the molecular genetics of protecting the optic nerve from diseases like glaucoma, new medications for complex eye infections, and even the frontier of artificial vision.
28 ophthalmologists staff the adult and pediatric clinics at DMEI, serving 122,000 patient visits and performing 14,000 surgical procedures each year. DMEI maintains a core mission to serve an increasing indigent population that has no other access to specialized eye care, totaling 18 percent of the Institute’s total patient load.
DMEI ophthalmologists and faculty are nationally known – over half of the Institute’s physicians are listed in Best Doctors of America; the chief scientist is the President of the International Society for Eye Research; two members of the faculty are Directors of the American Board of Ophthalmology; and the incoming President of the Glaucoma Society is also on the faculty of DMEI.
DMEI faculty, serving as the ophthalmology department for the University of Oklahoma’s Medical School, train nearly half of the states ophthalmology students. The Institute’s residency program is a top-tiered program drawing the best of the next generation of ophthalmologists from around the country with over one hundred applications for every position. DMEI faculty is known internationally as authors of standard textbooks used in many countries.
“This Institute was formed more than three decades ago by some incredible visionaries in this community. Because of their vision and their support, Oklahoma now has a world famous healthcare and biomedical research organization,” continued Dr. Parke. “This Institute is at a place in its development where we either build on the incredible achievements of the past decades or lose those achievements because our success has overcrowded our clinics and scattered our researchers to other buildings threatening to snuff the synergy that fueled our growth."
Donors have already invested in the Institute’s vision for the future by committing $15 million towards the $30 million needed to complete the expansion program. "
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