New UH medical school will seek to be world class

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

For supporters of a new University of Hawai'i medical school in Kaka'ako, the post-Sept. 11 special legislative session was a dream come true.

	Project costs
	The University of Hawai'i has budgeted $160 million* toward the first stage of its medical center in Kaka'ako. A breakdown of how UH plans to spend that money:
•	Site planning and design: $10 million
•	Biomedical research building: $70 million
•	Education and administration building: $22 million
•	Site and utilities construction: $15 million
•	Other expenses, including consulting fees and a 15 percent allowance for cost overrun: $43 million
*	includes $150 million from the October legislative special session, and $10 million approved in spring 2001. Source: University of Hawai'i

When the first stages are complete several years later, many say, the medical school could become everything that its supporters desire: A top-flight science center, an anchor for Kaka'ako development, and a cornerstone of a biotechnology industry in Hawai'i.

The medical school dean, Dr. Edwin Cadman, says the planned center has the potential to do for Hawai'i what the University of Washington medical school does for Seattle, or what Johns Hopkins does for Baltimore. Those schools attract top-flight medical researchers and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal grants.

The big challenge, however, may be whether the university, armed with a modern research center, can actually attract the researchers that would make the project worthwhile.

UH will have to market itself heavily against stiff worldwide competition, and the best medical researchers often earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from universities and corporations.

If UH fails to draw top talent, the medical school will likely continue to fall behind its peers. In 2000, the school drew $2.5 million in National Institutes of Health grants, 115th in the nation. Johns Hopkins, by contrast, drew $420 million.

Facility should market itself

Supporters hope the Kaka'ako center will market itself. Not only will the medical school have a state-of-the-art facility, but it will be affiliated with a federally designated "minority university" — and thus be in a great position to tap federal medical research money, which has recently increased by billions of dollars per year.

"This will be very attractive to people with a pioneer spirit, those who have the leadership to help build a new program," said Arthur Ushijima, president and chief executive of The Queen's Medical Center, a hospital system that stands to benefit if the UH project is successful. "What I'm saying is, if the university creates the opportunities, then top researchers will want to come."

Ushijima and others agree, however, that it's not as simple as "build and they will come."

Several factors still have to fall into place — not the least of which is creating adequate parking in the surrounding area for hundreds of students and workers.

The project also banks on cooperation from local landowners, who are mulling plans to develop the surrounding area with complementary buildings like a biotechnology business park. And a lot will hinge on how well the university can compete for private money to help fund research projects and to expand the school beyond its initial stages.

Observers including Cadman and Ushijima note that top medical schools took decades to build their research reputations and funding base.

"This is not an easy thing to do," Ushijima said. "But you do have to build a foundation, and that's what UH is doing."

Building a foundation

But even that foundation was hard to come by. In spring 2001, legislators only approved $10 million for the school to plan construction — far less than the university sought. Cadman and other university officials hit the private fund-raising circuit, but had scant luck in attracting capital as a recession loomed.

When new UH President Evan Dobelle arrived this past summer, he added a new twist, by announcing he would re-evaluate the choice of Kaka'ako as a location for the medical school, and hinted that West O'ahu would be a preferable site.

After lengthy discussions with hospital officials, doctors and politicians, Dobelle changed his mind, restoring Kaka'ako as the preferred site. And after Sept. 11, with the state looking for a big construction project to stimulate the economy, Dobelle successfully lobbied the Legislature to provide money for the medical school project.

Now that it's for real, Cadman says the medical center could lure 40 to 50 top researchers to new faculty positions and attract between $80 million and $100 million per year in federal research money, plus tens of millions more in federal reimbursements for the administrative costs of research.

The center also would create the need for dozens of highly specialized laboratory technicians, plus hundreds of support staff. The new positions — about 500 jobs, Cadman estimates — would pay for themselves with the increased grant revenue, Cadman says.

Must lure research grants

The university's business model predicts yearly profit between $1.2 million and $7.2 million if the faculty can land enough research grants.

The marquee building will be a 215,000-square-foot, $70 million research center, one of two major buildings planned for the first stage of construction. Also planned are a $22 million, 116,000-square-foot education and administration complex, and a $15 million, 10,000-square-foot utility building.

The university also wants to build an $80 million building to house the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i, which now is on the Queen's Medical Center grounds in downtown Honolulu. Cadman has hired Tim Dolan, a professional fund-raiser who worked for Chaminade University, to help raise the money from private sources.

Observers say the new facilities would be a huge upgrade over the medical school's longtime home on the Manoa campus. The John A. Burns School of Medicine is crowded and antiquated, with many of its lab facilities built decades ago and not compliant with current safety standards, said Patricia Taylor, chairwoman of the school's medical technology department.

"Right now, we're so cramped on campus, anything will help," Taylor said.

The research center will not only double the available lab space, but be more efficient than the current building, with lots of shared facilities, Cadman said. The Manoa building is labyrin-

thine, with too many cubicles and too little adequate lab space to go around, Cadman said.

The new site is also within a mile of all the major Honolulu teaching hospitals, making teaching and collaboration with researchers easier.

That's one main reason the medical school stayed in Kaka'ako despite Dobelle's exploration this summer of several alternate sites.

Boosting development

Developers in Kaka'ako say the school also is expected to stimulate growth and development in the surrounding area.

Major area landowners Kamehameha Schools and Victoria Ward Ltd. are drawing up plans to refashion several nearby acres that are now filled with car dealerships and warehouses.

University and state officials say Kamehameha Schools has discussed building a parking garage and commercial park in the block between the school site and Ala Moana, presumably for use by biotechnology firms and others that thrive on medical research.

Kamehameha Schools officials said it's too soon to tell what will happen, but they hope to have firmer plans by next April.

Sanford Murata, the estate's director of commercial assets, said the ultimate goal is to be "synergistic" with the medical school.

Meanwhile, Victoria Ward has said it hopes to build six high-rise residential buildings and expand its retail shops in the area, believing that the hundreds of students, doctors and other workers employed by the medical school will want places to live, eat and shop nearby.

If these ideas become reality, the medical school would be the source of the development long envisioned, but never fully realized, for Kaka'ako, said Jan Yokota, executive director of the Ha-

wai'i Community Development Authority, the state agency that oversees development in Kaka'ako.

"The medical school is the anchor we need to generate growth," Yokota said.

And the medical school's influence could extend far beyond its waterfront location.

A leap forward

Many supporters say the center could be a leap forward in the state's attempt to develop knowledge-based industries and diversify the economy.

If the medical school does bring in top researchers and money, it will attract plenty of attention from the entrepreneurs, corporations and venture investors that scour the globe for cutting-edge ideas, said David Watumull, president of 'Aiea research firm Hawaii Biotechnology Group.

Watumull said his company is very interested in moving near the center once it is built.

"Being there would be ideal, not only for us but any other biotech company that wants to be in Hawai'i," Watumull said. "You get a chance to walk down the hall, hang out with the scientists and find new research, get an early look at new technology. It's a process that has worked at most of the major medical schools across the country.

"That's the real promise of a research medical school — it's not just about teaching new doctors, but about having the research that can be transferred to the private sector, which leads to new jobs, new opportunities and a new industry."

Advertiser staff writer John Duchemin can be reached by email at jduchemin@honoluluadvertiser.com or by phone at 525-8062.