As sophisticated as American health care has become, a gap still exists between discoveries in basic science laboratories and the actual application of effective new diagnostics, treatments and cures.
In that gap lies a historic opportunity for Jackson County to enhance the health and lives of local patients, and in the process generate good-paying jobs, innovative new businesses and millions of dollars in publicly shared revenues with the commercialization of medical discoveries.

On the table is a visionary, detailed proposal to create a world-class Institute for Translational Medicine in Jackson County that would recruit and employ a team of leading physician scientists to “translate” discoveries in the laboratory to cutting-edge treatments and cures for diseases, such as arthritis, osteoporosis, cancer, childhood diabetes and obesity.

The new Translational Medicine Institute of Jackson County would be created and operated on Hospital Hill as a collaborative partnership between Jackson County and four locally based, nationally respected nonprofit institutions: Children’s Mercy Hospital; Saint Luke’s Health System; the University of Missouri-Kansas City Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Nursing and Health Studies; and the
Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute.

Already, civic leader Donald J. Hall Sr. and the Hall Family Foundation, longtime, selfless investors in the local economy, have pledged to pay for construction of a $75 million state-of-the-art research facility to house the institute, if Jackson County voters on Nov. 5 approve a half-cent sales tax to fund the scientists’ ongoing research and clinical trials, and provide them with the time, support staff and equipment necessary to develop truly life-changing discoveries, treatments and cures.

This combined public/private investment is expected to generate more than $30 million in economic output in its first year of operation. The development of new medications, treatments and cures—especially in the fields of pediatric and geriatric medicine—could induce more than $600 million in direct and indirect economic benefits for Jackson County in the first decade of operation alone.

The benefits of these research, testing and medical advances will reach the people and patients of Jackson County first, providing us with a level of health care services available in few other places. And the benefits will extend well beyond our backyard. Industry and scientific observers predict that creation of the Translational Medicine Institute of Jackson County will positively impact the health of the world and elevate Kansas City and Jackson County to the very forefront of the life sciences. The vote on Nov. 5 is truly the vote of a lifetime.