The University of Michigan's Board of Regents has set aside $13.7 million to create the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, which will focus on public health policy and an interdisciplinary approach to tackling healthcare challenges.
The new institute will be housed in the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based university’s North Campus Research Complex, a collection of 30 buildings spread over 174 acres that the university purchased in 2009 from Pfizer, shortly after the pharmaceutical giant ceased operations there.
"The promise of the NCRC, to provide space for co-location of investigators based on affinities, aligns perfectly with the vision for the institute in bringing together our accomplished health services investigators in shared space that will offer new opportunities for collaborations and innovative initiatives that might not have otherwise flourished," said James O. Woolliscroft, MD, dean of the University of Michigan Medical School.
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The Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation will soon begin a national search for a director. The new institute will be an academic unit reporting to the Medical School, and the director will report to Woolliscroft.
The money approved by the Board of Regents will be used to convert a building on the North Campus to house the institute. Renovations will begin shortly and are expected to completed in spring 2012.
Researchers won’t be waiting for the completion of renovations. According to the university, roughly 100 researchers that are expected to join the staff of the institute have moved to the NCRC site. The initial staff will include faculty and staff from the University of Michigan Medical School's Surgery, Anesthesiology, Urology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Psychiatry, ENT, Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine departments, as well as researchers from the Faculty Group Practice and investigators from the schools of Public Health and Nursing.
The new Institute is expected to eventually include members from the medical school, the colleges of Literature, Science and the Arts, Engineering and Pharmacy, the schools of Nursing, Public Policy, Public Health and Dentistry, the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System and Arbor Research.
"We recognize the interdisciplinary nature of the challenges in healthcare delivery and believe this new approach will help us understand and address them effectively. The work at the institute will draw on a wide range of faculty expertise in fields such as law, economics, public policy, sociology and management. We anticipate innovative ideas for addressing these critical concerns," said Phil Hanlon, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
Development of the NCRC has been ongoing for the past two years, with efforts driven by a faculty committee charged with identifying university resources focused on health services that could aid in the formation of a new health institute.
"Forming this Institute is an example of the collaborative work that we hope will continue and there are many, many people at this university who were involved," said Thomas Schwenk, MD, chairman of U-M's Department of Family Medicine and professor of Family Medicine and Medical Education who chaired the committee charged with creating the institute. "There will be many advantages – logistical, physical and operational – for members of this institute to collaborate with each other, instead of working on their own. We hope and intend that these collaborations will spark the development of new approaches to healthcare."