October 2009

The Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute provides this news brief for civic, corporate, political and scientific leaders to update you on the progress of the life sciences initiative in the Kansas City area. To unsubscribe, please contact Sharon Newman at 816-753-7700.

• Saint Luke’s informed consent tool expands nationally

• KU Medical Center expansion to start in January

• Cerner, MU to establish new institute

• Quintiles, Cerner partner for quality control

• Masonic Foundation to help KU achieve NCI designation

• UMKC Ranks No. 1 for increase in Medical Students

• Bayer gives $50,000 to Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute

• Researchers bring $3 million to University of Kansas Cancer Center

Saint Luke’s informed consent tool expands nationally

In 2006 outcomes researchers at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute developed a tool called PREDICT or Patient Refined Expectations for Deciding Invasive Cardiac Treatments. PREDICT, the first known implementation of individualized consent forms, gave patients a clearer picture of their projected outcomes based on their medical circumstances. Starting in 2010 the tool will be adopted by some of the nation’s most prestigious medical centers. More info

KU Medical Center expansion to start in January

The University of Kansas Medical Center will have a new, three-story building on its campus by 2011. The KU Endowment announced that construction will begin in January on a 40,000 square-foot, $6 million building. The building will provide additional space for the medical center on the first two floors and house new endowment offices on the third floor. More info

Cerner, MU to establish new institute

Cerner Corp. and the University of Missouri System will partner to create a new institute, the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation later this year. The institute will capitalize on Cerner and MU’s long-standing business relationship, boost R&D efforts and potentially save Missouri residents $1 billion in the process. More info

Quintiles, Cerner partner for quality control

Quintiles Transnational Corp. will implement Cerner Corp.’s web-based Discovere product to help evaluate the effectiveness and safety of drugs once they are on the market. More info

Masonic Foundation to help KU achieve NCI designation

The Kansas Masonic Foundation launched a $2 million fund-raising campaign in October to support the University of Kansas Cancer Center’s efforts to achieve National Cancer Institute designation. More info

UMKC Ranks No. 1 for increase in Medical Students

The University of Missouri-Kansas City had the largest percentage gain in first-year enrollment among the 131 medical schools that are members of the Association of American Medical Colleges. UMKC’s medical school’s first-year enrollment in 2009 was 104. More info

Bayer gives $50,000 to Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute

The Kansas City Science Initiative received $50,000 from Bayer Animal Health. Both Bayer Animal Health and Bayer CropScience helped create the program in 2006 with a $150,000 seed grant. The Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute has leveraged this investment to an additional $1.8 million to implement the program. More info

Researchers bring $3M to University of Kansas
Cancer Center

Sharmila Shankar, PhD and Rakesh Srivastava, PhD, have joined the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. They bring with them a total of $3 million in National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding. More info

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