Walls go up at new UH med school
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Gov. Linda Lingle was generous in her praise of former Gov. Ben Cayetano and the Legislature yesterday for having the "guts" to launch the $150 million medical school project in the dark days after Sept. 11.
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She also pledged her support to continue building a major biomedical complex in Kaka'ako.
A wall segment was installed at the new John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kaka'ako yesterday. The school will include a laboratory that allows students to practice surgery on "virtual patients."
"It's the beginning of an entire industry," Lingle told a gathering of legislators, University of Hawai'i officials and other state dignitaries yesterday as cranes swung a section of the first-floor wall into place for the new John A. Burns School of Medicine that broke ground last October.
"We won't let it stop here," she said. "You have my word on that."
In lauding the previous administration and legislators who approved the use of tobacco money to back construction, Lingle said "it was a vision for a future different for the young people," adding that it would offer tremendous opportunities for Hawai'i's children.
"It's a wise investment," she said. "It was something good that came out of a tragedy."
Lingle said later that her concept of a biomedical complex includes a new Comprehensive Cancer Research Center that would bring cutting-edge Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials to the state's cancer patients. Negotiations are still under way on that project — both for state land near the new medical school in Kaka'ako and for the institutional partnerships to support it.
And she said she has been in discussions with Dr. Jong-Wook Lee, who takes over in July as director-general of the World Health Organization, about finding training programs and a training center in Hawai'i for research on everything from bioterrorism to severe acute respiratory syndrome.
"Hawai'i is the logical place to do this research," Lingle said. "Dr. Lee has a strong feeling it would be strategically located in Hawai'i."
Lingle said Lee spoke of an overall budget of $54 million for such programs, finding "some substantial portion of it here."
Lee graduated from UH in 1981 with a master's degree in public health. He has great affection for Hawai'i, she said. When he came to Hawai'i to study public health, he had a medical degree from Seoul National University.
UH President Evan Dobelle and Medical School dean Edwin Cadman underscored the governor's remarks, both emphasizing how dramatic the economic effect of the new medical school and research facilities in Kaka'ako will be.
"Fully realized, this facility will stand as one of the world's pre-eminent centers for biomedical research" — with the power to reshape Hawai'i's future, Dobelle said.
"It's about a new economy," Cadman said. "It's about dollars and jobs."
Cadman noted that the medical school rising in Kaka'ako will be the finest and most advanced of the nation's 125 medical schools. For instance, in the "virtual reality/simulation" laboratory, students will be able to perform surgery on "virtual patients."
And he said that research done at the new medical school and new cancer research center will "form the foundation" for the new "life sciences biotechnology industry." Each new discovery, he said, has the potential to become a patentable product spun off to create a new biotech company.
The first building of the new medical school, on 9.1 acres next to Kaka'ako Waterfront Park, is expected to be done in the fall of 2004 and the second building in fall 2005. The first building will include classrooms, while the second will be a Biomedical Research Building.
The present medical school has been in its facility on the Manoa campus since the 1970s and more modern space is needed for research. The existing building will be renovated for lab use as part of a Phase II construction involving a new cancer center.
In other news, the governor told reporters that Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona will convene a major gathering of state agencies and departments this summer to address Hawai'i's growing crystal methamphetamine problem.
Efforts to combat "ice" use in Hawai'i are disjointed, Lingle said, but that the mayors of each island want the state administration to take a leadership role in the issue. She said another problem is a lack of treatment options.
"Right now there's a waiting list (for treatment)," said Lingle, who wants the state to be able to offer treatment on demand.
