For one afternoon, UConn researchers and clinicians found themselves educating a different audience than their usual grad students and residents: members of the Connecticut State Legislature.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Feb. 26, more than a dozen faculty members of UConn and UConn Health joined with University leadership to present their research to the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee. The speakers emphasized the need to connect their cutting-edge research directly into medical practice, something that would be much more difficult without a top health facility like UConn Health.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur students, faculty, and staff push the frontiers, and our research enterprise continues to compete at the highest level,\u201d UConn President Radenka Maric said. \u201cWe are engaging in the necessary work to advance science and medicine that will positively impact the lives of people in this state and beyond. As an integrated health delivery system, that is what we must do \u2013 it is inherent in our responsibilities to teach, advance medical knowledge, and provide exemplary clinical care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hearing was scheduled amid scrutiny of UConn Health as the legislature works with Governor Ned Lamont to establish the state\u2019s budget. Committee Chairman Sen. John Fonfara, D-1st District (Hartford, Wethersfield), invited UConn to prove the importance and impact of UConn Health, which has benefited from $864 million from the Bioscience Connecticut investment.<\/p>\n
Dr. Bruce Liang, the dean of the UConn School of Medicine and interim CEO of UConn Health, guided the committee through the breadth of the institute\u2019s impact. Bioscience Connecticut has enabled the construction of several projects, lab and research space renovation, the establishing of the Technology Incubation Program\u2019s Farmington startup incubator, and partnership with Jackson Laboratories.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have additional components for world-class infrastructure for research, education, and patient care,\u201d Liang said.<\/p>\n
The new and existing infrastructure serves as the backdrop for clinical care, the synergy of research and practice,\u00a0 and a clientele that has served residents from all 169 towns in the state. Financially, UConn Health has a $3.3 billion impact on the state, $2.5 billion on Connecticut\u2019s GDP, and employs 5,800 people.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine produce top doctors and dentists, the majority of whom stay in the state to practice. Researchers from those schools have earned hundreds of millions in research funding to support their work, in fields from prenatal care to geriatric medicine.<\/p>\n
Excellent Care in Connecticut<\/strong><\/p>\n Faculty members explained their research pursuits in detail, including Dr. Liisa Kuhn, a professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Dentistry. Applying 3-D printing techniques used to create dental implants, Kuhn has developed custom-printed breast prosthetics<\/a> for women who have had mastectomies. For context, Connecticut has the second-highest percentage of residents who are diagnosed with breast cancer, as well as the lowest cancer death rate in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have good early detection and good care, but there are a lot of cancer survivors, and some of them don\u2019t necessarily want an implant of a foreign material in their body after just struggling with what\u2019s just gone on with the surgically,\u201d Kuhn said.<\/p>\n