Friday, September 01, 2006
Burnham Institute to Build New Campus Next to UCF College of Medicine
The California-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research will build its new Florida campus next to the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine at Lake Nona, institute president John Reed announced Wednesday.
The addition of the Burnham Institute and the expected inclusion of a veterans’ hospital virtually assure the creation of a “medical city” cluster of biotechnology companies and research, UCF President John Hitt said Wednesday.
The institute selected Orlando over Port St. Lucie. Burnham’s decision creates many opportunities for partnerships with UCF researchers in areas such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and infectious diseases. UCF has been expanding its biomedical research programs through the Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences and other colleges and in anticipation of the new medical school, which is set to open in fall 2009.
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UCF gets OK for a medical school
UCF President John Hitt called the Board of Governor's vote "a major milestone" for the university and the Central Florida community.
"We look forward to serving the community, state and nation by providing needed doctors and improving health care," Hitt says.
Thursday's vote capped a two-year effort by UCF and FIU to persuade critics that the state needed not one but two medical schools. Hitt and FIU President Modesto Maidique have consistently argued that the schools will help meet Florida's urgent need for more physicians, as well create enormous economic impact in their respective regions and the state.
UCF's economic impact study projects that the medical school alone could generate $1.4 billion a year in economic activity and more than 6,400 jobs in 10 years.
The study goes on to project that the impact could balloon to $6.4 billion and 26,000 jobs over 10 years if a life-science cluster of related research and business develops around the
