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Low Town Hall turnout gets big update by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations Despite a relatively low turnout, the Feb. 20 Town Hall meeting attendees provided a lot of big news and updates on virtually everything that is going on with MUSC, including a high-speed fiber optic network that will connect MUSC to medical centers in Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, and maybe the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken.   MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., and Provost John Raymond, M.D., covered abundant territory during the quarterly meeting that was promoted as “everything you wanted to know about MUSC but were afraid to ask.” Much of the presentation focused on statewide collaborative efforts and the infrastructure to support them, including a plan to link health care centers in South Carolina to facilitate the rapid exchange of research and clinical data.   One of the first programs to benefit from this dedicated fiber optic network will be a half-dozen clinical simulation centers being developed in South Carolina under the direction of John Schaefer, M.D., the Lewis Blackman Chair in Patient Safety at MUSC. The first such simulation facility will be opened at Greenville Hospital System on March 14. The MUSC simulation center, to be headquartered in renovated space in the College of Nursing building, will open about a year from now. Other simulation labs are under development in Columbia, Spartanburg and Beaufort. “Within a year,” Greenberg said, “South Carolina will be viewed as an international leader in medical simulation.”   The simulation program was established through an endowed chair created with funds contributed initially by Greenville Hospital and matched by state lottery money. A $21-million Duke Endowment grant will be used to expand work in patient safety, clinical effectiveness and health care quality. This grant is eligible for matching in the state’s endowed chair program, which means that it has the potential to invest $42 million in these statewide efforts.   Meanwhile, an IT program called the South Carolina Light Rail (SCLR) will offer a high-speed fiber optic system to connect facilities in South Carolina, and beyond. This dedicated network will greatly enhance the ability to transmit large volumes of clinical data between the institutions. For example, once the SCLR is completed, a 3-gigabyte functional MRI of the brain would take only three seconds to transmit as compared with the nearly 10 minutes that is currently required. The research universities have requested support from the General Assembly to implement this network, and the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee budget does include some initial funding. The endowed chairs review board also has authorized funding to be allocated for this network.   In areas of research, Raymond announced that MUSC has agreed to collaborate with the Medical College of Georgia and University of South Carolina in its pursuit of a Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health. Working together from a regional perspective should enhance MUSC and the other facilities’ chances to receive one of these large, highly competitive grants.   “Each institution has strengths,” said Raymond, adding that less than half of the medical schools in the United States ultimately will receive a CTSA. “This will separate the haves from the have nots in institutional science,” he said. Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D., will lead the institutional troika that currently is working on a series of three research retreats.   Raymond also said that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation visit will take place at the end of March. “We have received some outstanding initial news,” Raymond said, explaining that SACS accreditation board has requested more information on a limited number of issues. The focus of the site visit will be MUSC’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which is focused on expanding the opportunities for interprofessional education on campus. The QEP is being coordinated by Amy Blue, Ph.D., of the College of Medicine, and builds upon a number of campus initiatives to increase students’ knowledge of other health professions and better instill a team approach to health care delivery, education and research. The SACS accreditation, which occurs every 10 years, is essential for federal funding, individual college accreditations, and eligibility of students to obtain licensure.   Other updates included the status of new construction, including the new hospital, the Drug Discovery Building, and the new College of Dental Medicine facility. All facilities are moving forward and plans already are underway for further construction projects. The meeting ended with questions and answers, with the promise of another update later this year.     Friday, March 2, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. 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