Wright State University : Innovation + Job News

Wright State University is putting a new place on the map: Calamityville.

The threat of danger � made by man or Mother Nature � always looms in Calamityville. Weather forecasts are dire. Security reports are worse. It sounds like a place from which people would escape.

Instead, it's a place the Dayton-area school says will attractive medical, public health, public safety and civilian and military disaster response decision-makers from around the world for state-of-the-art training.

Calamityville is part of The National Center for Medical Readiness at WSU, an Ohio Center of Excellence. It's being funded from state and federal sources, as well as a wide range of businesses. WSU and the cities of Dayton and are providing support, too.

Among the features on the site plan: an urban destruction zone, transportation mishaps, and water environments. Site preparation has begun, and a virtual version exists here. 

Dr. Mark E. Gebhart, associate professor at Wright State's Boonshoft School of Medicine and director of the NCMR, estimates that over a five-year period Calamityville will directly and indirectly generate $374 million for the Miami Valley region. It will directly and indirectly create approximately 35 new jobs and when calculating the construction components will impact another 344 jobs. Plus, he says in an economic impact assessment, there will be spin-off revenue to the region from increased tourism and overnight stays, increased sales and income tax revenues, and related growth.

On a related note, this month, the NCMR became one of six emergency preparedness training facilities in the U.S. to test the American Medical Association's Core Disaster Life Support Course, an introduction to "all hazards" preparedness for first responders, local officials and the public.

Source: Cindy Young, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Doctors have long been able to evaluate neurological disorders like Parkinson's and ALS. What they haven't been able to pinpoint are many of the specific nerve-connection changes that lead to those problems.

The Wright State University and Premier Health Partners Neuroscience Institute is poised to change all that. Late last month, Wright State and Premier Health announced a partnership that will create the $22-million state-of-the-art institute and a new department of neurology within Wright State's Boonshoft School of Medicine.

Molly Hall, chief academic officer and vice president of academic affairs for Premier Health, says the institute will provide both a residency training program in neurology within Premier Health's hospital system and a mechanism for moving Wright State research into clinical trials. Such a program will help keep medical graduates in the region, attract new talent, and move the region toward national leadership in the neurosciences, she says.

The institute will focus on neurological problems that lead to movement disorders, says Tim Cope, director of the new institute and professor and chair of department of neuroscience, cell biology and physiology at Wright State.

As many as 95 new jobs will be created initially, but Cope says the ability to marry research with clinical trials will pave the way for  federal grants -- and more jobs and funding.

Premier Health will contribute $4.35 million over five years to form the new neurology department at Wright State; a department chair is to be named by the end of the year. The residency program is expected to be in place within four to five years. WSU, meanwhile, is raising $22 million for the 64,000-square-foot laboratory from state, federal and private sources.

Sources: Molly Hall, Premier Health Partners and Tim Cope, Boonshoft School of Medicine
Writer: Gene Monteith