Statement from UH Mānoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman April 24, 2015
This University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa report represents a summary of the internal work on a business plan proposal for the UH Cancer Center and the broader John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at the Kakaʻako Campus. The UH Cancer Center is being administratively incorporated into JABSOM to improve efficiency and effectiveness of both units.
Following this public release, I will be convening a group of external reviewers to assist in identifying additional opportunities and developing next steps for a thriving Kakaʻako Campus that serves the people of Hawaiʻi.
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Kaka‘ako Campus Business Plan Proposal
April, 2015
Executive Summary
The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) John A. Burns School of Medicine (“the School”) and the University of Hawai‘i’s Cancer Center (“the Center”) provide essential support to the state of Hawai‘i in education, research, clinical services and economic development. As the only School and Center of their kind in Hawai‘i and the Pacific, together, these high tech and high touch (health promoting) units compose the Kaka‘ako Campus (“the Campus”). The Campus anchors the Kaka‘ako area of Honolulu and provides a vital nidus (piko) for the biotech, health services and life science programs in Hawai‘i.
Why is a business plan needed?
• The University and state legislative support to the School and the Center is significantly declining; therefore,
- The School and the Center must first apply these support dollars to cover their Kaka‘ako Campus infrastructure costs;
- Without additional mission-based support for faculty salary coverage equal to ~$3.6M for the School and ~$10.5M for the Center, in fiscal year 2017, the School will lose its medical school accreditation and the Center will lose its National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation.
These funding declines severely impact Hawai‘i’s workforce, new federal dollars coming into the state and most importantly, Hawai‘i’s future provision of health services.
“Does the state wish to sustain the many unique benefits provided by the School and the Center at the Kaka‘ako Campus and thus build upon its promise for further economic development as originally envisioned by the legislature and subsequently by multiple governors?” –Dean Jerris Hedges
The present proposal is an essential first step in the development of a complete plan. The purpose of this internal report is twofold.
• To demonstrate the steps already put into action to reduce costs as a collective Kaka‘ako Campus under the executive dean’s leadership (serving as the School’s dean and the Center’s interim director), and to identify the additional annual resources required to retain a UH NCI designated Cancer Center and UH’s Medical School’s Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) accreditation and to seek a funding model for the Center equivalent to comparable Organized Research Units (ORU) on the UH Mānoa campus.
• This plan also presents two additional funding scenarios associated with the loss of the Center’s NCI designation. These models require less state investment, but result in the loss of key research faculty, indirect cost recovery, new federal dollars that stimulate the local economy and biotech business development and most importantly, expansion of cancer clinical treatment trials presently available for those who live in Hawai‘i.
PDF: Download the full report
SA: UH plan calls for $14M for medical school, cancer center
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