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REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin DATE: September 5, 2001
Thank you very much.
Dean Ferrell, Chancellor Wylie, Dean Weinswig, Dean May, honored friends and guests.
It's wonderful to be back in the great state of Wisconsin and to be back on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin here in Madison.
I loved attending the U-W. Coming here as a young man from Elroy was quite an experience. I had not known I was poor and underprivileged until my freshman year here in Madison. But attending the UW for my undergraduate and law degrees prepared me well for the challenges ahead, and I'm grateful for the people and traditions of this great institution.
Today's groundbreaking is the result of years of work by many dedicated people. One I want especially to highlight is Wayne McGown, with whom I worked closely on this project while I was governor. Wayne was instrumental in every facet of getting us to the point where we can break ground today, and I want to recognize him and thank him for his fine work.
It's no exaggeration to say that the UW Medical School is one of the premier medical facilities in the world. I'm a proud Badger, for sure, but that's an indisputable fact.
The history of the Medical School has been a legacy of firsts. In 1916, researchers at the School discovered vitamins A and B. In the mid-1950s, researchers discovered how cancer-causing agents work in the human body.
In the 1970s, Dr. Howard Temin found an enzyme that explains how viruses cause cancer. This pioneering work led later to the discovery of HIV. And later, of course, Dr. Temin went on to win the Nobel Prize.
But Dr. Temin is only one of the UW's medical pioneers. I'm very pleased to see Dr. Jaime Thompson in the audience today, and also my friend Carl Gulbrandsen, who heads the Wisconsin Alumni Research Facility (WARF).
On Wednesday, it was my privilege to recognize Carl and also to highlight Jaime's work at a hearing of the Senate Health Committee, where I testified about stem cell research. Jaime made national news again this week with his announcement that in the next few years, we might be able to derive blood cells from stem cells. That's remarkable, and is typical of the promise stem cell research offers.
WARF is on the cutting-edge of experimentation, including the embryonic stem lines developed and maintained by Dr. Thompson. Thanks to the work of Jaime and his colleagues and the support of people like Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF truly is on the frontiers of medicine, and is a tribute to the generosity of the alumni of this great institution.
Today's event is a good demonstration of how that generosity can make a tremendous difference. Private- public partnerships, like the HealthStar initiative, can work together to accomplish important things, as the Rennebohm Building also demonstrates. The Rennebohm Building sets the standard for pharmacy research and training and will be an invaluable resource for many years to come.
The 1997-1999 capital budget that approved funding for the Health Sciences Learning Center building was important for Wisconsin, but it was only a beginning. Private-sector funds, including those raised by and from many of you, have played a critical role in bringing us to this day.
Altogether, this building is getting nearly $42 million from the state and another $24 million from private support. Much of that support has come from generous friends like you. We're indebted to you, and thank you.
The HealthStar project, of which the Rennebohm Building is another part, is designed to elevate Wisconsin's already high stature as a leader in medical research and technology. Today, as I stand on this beautiful campus and consider the prospect for continued medical advances in coming years, it's clear that the resources we devoted to this whole initiative have been, and are being, very well spent.
The Learning Center will place medical students and faculty members on the cusp of the latest in medical education and knowledge. But it will also serve a broader purpose, namely to integrate all facets of medical training - for physicians, nurses and pharmacists - to add breadth and depth to the way they prepare for their careers of service in a variety of medical fields.
The Learning Center will also be a hub for distance learning. The Internet facilities in the Center will make it a forum for statewide medical training and even international medical education.
The Center will be a model for the way the next generation of physicians will be taught. For example, through the Center's electronic technology, simulation will take the place of certain types of traditional training that can be costly and time-consuming.
And the Center's Web-based resources will enable medical professionals to keep up with the latest in medical information and technology, fostering the kind of lifelong medical learning so important to the treatment of people in need of care.
Lifelong learning is critical, because so much is happening in the world of medical research it is difficult to keep pace with it. For example, ten years ago, there were about 40 cancer drugs in clinical trial. Today, there are 470 - a more than tenfold increase in a decade. So staying on the leading edge of medical knowledge is vital to every caregiver and researcher.
That edge is expanding all the time. The technologies now available to us are remarkable. Let me give you a specific example: There is a type of cancer I know many of you are all familiar with called Non- Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Pathologists have long argued about how to classify it, since they knew that it really consisted of a number of diseases.
Over the past two years, the National Cancer Institute - which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services - has created a chip that can read all of the genes in any lymphoma sample. As a result, we've discovered two distinct lymphatic cancers that previously had been lumped together.
This explains why only about half of the patients treated for these kinds of lymphomas were cured, because even though they had different types of lymphoma, the treatments they were given affected one disease but not the other. We just hadn't understood that there were actually two diseases, not one.
This kind of scientific advancement is typical of the new medical horizon before us. Here at the University of Wisconsin, the Medical School is helping to extend that horizon further by the day. In fact, the UW- Madison hosts no less than two dozen groups that combine university knowledge and corporate expertise that foster research and bring the fruit of that research to the businesses and consumers.
I already mentioned the work being done on embryonic stem cells. Let me mention another example, this one close to my family as my wife, Sue Ann, is a breast cancer survivor. The UW's Comprehensive Cancer Center - one of the leading cancer research and treatment facilities in the world - is engaged in a year-long study to evaluate the usefulness of a drug call zoledronate in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer and also in strengthening the bones of breast cancer survivors.
Chemotherapy weakens bones . and that often means osteoporosis. Helping to stop breast cancer from occurring again, and helping women who have had it build stronger bodies, is a wonderful investment of resources. At the UW, that kind of investment is made day in, day out, and all of us benefit from it.
Research and the teaching and practicing medicine can get discouraging. It's hard to see people in pain, day after day . to treat ailing bodies, to try to conquer disease and sickness.
But take heart from something Albert Einstein said many years ago. In his words, "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
In Wisconsin, we always "stay with the problems" until we come up with solutions. That's what the Health Sciences Learning Center, the Medical School and the whole vast field of medicine are really all about. And by staying the course, not losing either heart or hope, incredible new remedies and treatments are possible.
It's a joy to be with you. I look forward to hearing great things about the progress of this dynamic new building and the way it is used to improve thousands of lives. Thank you very much.
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