In 47 years of growth, UF’s Health Science Center advances state of health care and builds world reputation

As the university marks its 150th anniversary beginning this month, the UF Health Science Center celebrates 47 years of dynamic growth that has changed the face of health care in the Southeast and helped put UF on the world map. Discoveries and developments by its faculty have enhanced the quality and scope of health care.

The invention of the energy-boosting sports beverage Gatorade® by J. Robert Cade, M.D., and the glaucoma drug Trusopt® by the late Thomas Maren, M.D., are among discoveries that have won Health Science Center medical researchers worldwide acclaim. These two products are the university’s top generators of royalty funds that support further research.

The Health Science Center, through its fast-paced growth of faculty, facilities, students, research funding, private donations, patient-care technologies, continuing education, satellite clinics and other outreach services, has evolved into the Southeast’s most comprehensive academic health center. The center also is a worldwide resource for certain aspects of health care. One example is the UF Craniofacial Center---run by the colleges of Dentistry, Medicine and Health Professions---which has directly influenced the surgical treatment of children with cleft lip and palate in 10 countries and provided comprehensive care to patients referred to UF from throughout the Southeast.

The Health Science Center sprang to life on a former cow pasture fronting rural Archer Road with the 1956 opening of the medical and nursing colleges. The center---now encompassing six colleges along with their statewide extension services and an academic campus in Jacksonville, is the fulfillment of a dream originated in the 1940s by the late J. Hillis Miller, Ph.D., UF’s fourth president.

Current leaders see continued major expansion.

The newly opened $25 million building for the colleges of Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy provides state-of-the-art teaching and research environments along with a chance to share support services in a time of ongoing economic constraint. On Jan. 29, a ceremonial groundbreaking event will signal the first concrete step toward building a $92 million proton beam cancer treatment facility on the Jacksonville campus. Additional building projects on the drawing board will provide space to expand programs in orthopedics, cancer, genetics and biotechnology, as well as a new small animal hospital at the veterinary school.

The Health Science Center now has affiliated educational, research and patient-care programs extending from Hialeah to the Panhandle and into South Georgia. Faculty physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and other health professionals staff five regional hospitals under the corporate management of Shands HealthCare and also staff hundreds of outpatient clinics---some managed by Shands and others by the colleges.

The colleges of Medicine and Nursing, which have recently achieved record-high research funding, commanded the “fort” for a short time before the fledgling health center became multidisciplinary in keeping with Miller’s initial concept. The two charter colleges train a large share of Florida’s practicing physicians and nurses, and provide community-based patient-care services in many parts of the state.

In 1958, the center opened the nation’s first health center-based College of Health Related Services, now known as the College of Health Professions---a provider of educational, research and clinical programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, health services administration, clinical and health psychology, rehabilitation counseling, rehabilitation science and communicative disorders. Today, this college ranks third among comparable U.S. colleges in research funding from the National Institutes of Health!

The College of Pharmacy, which moved from UF’s main campus to the health center in 1962, ranks among the nation’s top 10 pharmacy schools in the level of its research funding, and is paving new ground in distance education. Since the fall of 2001, the college has offered its Doctor of Pharmacy degree program at off-campus sites in Jacksonville, Orlando and St. Petersburg. Its faculty are conducting pioneering research in pharmacogenomics and collaborating with Procter & Gamble to develop a topical cream to protect against skin cancer.

The College of Dentistry, opened in 1972, provides general dental health services at three satellite clinics and in communities throughout Florida, and ranks in the top five among 55 U.S. dental schools in NIH research grants! Development of new and improved dental restorative materials and current work in developing a vaccine against periodontal disease have the potential to improve dental care.

The College of Veterinary Medicine, which enrolled its first students in 1976, is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the ninth best among the nation’s 27 veterinary medical schools. Today, the college and its statewide referral hospital provide cutting-edge clinical services and research, which benefit food animal producers, equine and greyhound dog industries, pet owners, and managers of wildlife parks and tourist attractions involving aquatic, wild and exotic animals. Having a veterinary school within the Health Science Center fosters collaborative studies of diseases affecting both animals and people, including research run by the UF Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology.

The Health Science Center has served as the springboard for several multidisciplinary, campuswide centers and institutes, including the world-renowned Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of UF, the UF Genetics Institute, the UF Shands Cancer Center and the UF Institute of Aging.

Since the original Shands teaching hospital opened only two years after the medical and nursing schools welcomed their first students, the UF Health Science Center and the Shands enterprise have grown up together. They remain inseparable collaborators in advancing health-care delivery, which includes introducing new treatment strategies and technologies. In many cases, the state referral hospital known as Shands at UF is first to apply positive research findings generated by Health Science Center faculty.

A few indicators of the institution’s current scope include:

·Employment: 7,469 individuals are employed at the HSC campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville, and another 8,320 are employed with Shands HealthCare.

·Student enrollment: 5,591 students in the six health center colleges, plus 468 in the technician training programs run by the colleges of Dentistry, Medicine and Nursing in cooperation with Santa Fe Community College.

·Operating budget for both HSC campuses: $666 million.

·Research funding for faculty with all HSC colleges on both campuses: $195.5 million.

·Size of facilities in Gainesville and Jacksonville, combined with Shands at UF and the campus-based Student Health Services: More than 4 million square feet.

·Patented inventions/discoveries: Health Science Center faculty garnered a large percentage of the 60 new U.S. patents awarded to UF faculty in 2001-2002. Of the 56 licensing agreements negotiated that year between UF and private industries, 27 involve research projects directed by health center faculty.

·Contract services: Through more than 4,850 current contracts, health center faculty provide patient care and consultative services to public schools, county health departments, crisis centers, hospice programs, rehabilitation centers, managed-care organizations, community-based health-care providers, correctional institutions, military bases, community colleges, universities and airlines in Florida and other states. Through one contract with Children’s Medical Services of the Florida Department of Health, UF pediatricians and other health professionals care for children of low-income families.