The decision has been made to temporarily house part or all of the Cancer Research Center in the same building as the new medical school that's scheduled for groundbreaking as early as October 2002.

"Everything they're both doing needs to keep going in high gear," said Jack Bradshaw, a Massachusetts-based projects consultant who helped forge the compromise. "Their status as research facilities can't be jeopardized."

"The momentum is critical," said Paul Costello, the new vice president for external affairs who was named a month ago and took his post this week.

With a position as part of Phase I, the research center will no longer be threatened with losing National Cancer Institute designation, or the money that comes with that. The University of Hawai'i Cancer Research Center is one of only 60 in the country with that national status.

The compromise comes in the wake of public disagreement between Cancer Research Center director Carl-Wilhelm Vogel and John A. Burns Medical School Dean Edwin Cadman over the timetable for building a new research center.

Vogel feared that slotting it into Phase II of the overall Health and Wellness Center development planned around the medical school would push its construction into the distant future or doom it forever. Money has not yet been found for Phase II.

With the compromise, UH President Evan S. Dobelle's team appears recommitted to the creation of a unified front. But Bradshaw noted that having two "passionate and deeply committed" people working to protect and enhance areas that need development is very typical.

"There's nothing new about intense intellectual pursuit," he said.

Bradshaw said both Vogel and Cadman have agreed to the decision and will be part of the planning to create the best working environment for both facilities within the same building.

As soon as its own building is complete, the Cancer Center will move out of its temporary quarters in the med school. But it's too soon to set a timetable for Phase II of the overall Health and Wellness Center development designed to vastly increase federal research money coming into the state and build a strong biomedical industry for Hawai'i.

The $150 million in funding for Phase II still needs to be raised, but Bradshaw said a strong medical school and cancer research center running at full tilt will bring in federal research grants as a major source of revenue for the project.

"The president has been adamant that accommodations be made as quickly as possible for the cancer center and has reiterated strongly he's going to continue to push for funding," said Bradshaw.

In working out an agreement between the two deans, Bradshaw dealt very pragmatically with current needs at both the medical school and the cancer center. After a tour of Vogel's facility, he called the working spaces "rabbit warrens."

The medical school space is equally cramped.

Several other agreements were also reached through meetings Bradshaw held this week, including:

• A decision that the Medical School and Cancer Research Center will be considered equal, with their deans both reporting to Interim Manoa Chancellor Deane Neubauer.

• A decision to put off Vogel's desire to build a stand-alone treatment clinic to house clinical trials and centralize patient care as part of the Cancer Research Center. The university supports the recent recommendation of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Cancer Care to hire a consultant to develop a business plan. A plan is needed before the university can assess how best to serve the community, patients, and the university, said Bradshaw.

Vogel's hope for a stand-alone outpatient clinic has come under fire by O'ahu hospitals that feel they'd stand to lose income from cancer care they're providing now. Local hospitals are already struggling financially because of cutbacks in federal Medicare reimbursements that set the standard for medical insurance reimbursements throughout the industry.

Bradshaw had high praise for both Vogel and Cadman and the system that is moving at fast-forward speed to create a complex of facilities to improve community health in every sense of the word.

"What they're trying to do is improve our lives," he said. "There's almost a passion that's greater than that of a CEO. The state and university are taking a giant leap forward in committing to this Health and Wellness Center."