✔✔✔✔✔ Fact Checker here.
In my last post about the Potti mess, I noted there were approximately 25,000 people in Duke Medicine, but that FC, like all journalists, unfortunately wrote largely about the problems caused by a very very few. This weekend, there were several developments that allow us to focus with pride in the work of Chancellor Dzau and his colleagues.
✔First, the new cancer center was topped out, the construction going quicker than expected. In one dimension this new building means jobs. In another, it means hope. The Chronicle article needs no amplification.
✔Second, an article prominent in the Washington Post pointed to the awesome work being done to improve the health of poor people in Durham. FC has been aware of elements of this; I commend this story for its overview:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/06/AR2010110603254.html
✔Third, Loyal Readers, let's go to the other side of the world. You may have seen stories about President Obama in India, citing trade with that nation as a creator of jobs in the United States. Yes, there were the inevitable wisecracks about everyone’s thinking our involvement began with outsourcing and ended with long delays at call centers.
The list of two dozen projects listed by the White House starts with civil airplanes made by US workers at Boeing, steam generators from General Electric and other heavy duty industrial deals. Read down, and you come to two involving Duke Medicine. Quoting from official papers:
"Medanta Duke Research Institute (MDRI): Duke Medicine, located in Durham, North Carolina, one of the leading academic health systems in the United States, and Medanta Medicity, located in Gurgaon, Haryana, a hospital and medical research complex, are announcing a joint venture agreement to
launch the MDRI, a proof-of-concept clinical research facility within Medanta's hospital. Duke Medicine will provide scientific and operational leadership, while Medanta will contribute financial resources and clinical and operational services.
"Duke Medicine also will be partnering with Jubilant Life Sciences, headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct research studies and co-develop promising discoveries, with significant funding and in-kind support provided by Jubilant. Subsequent commercialization is expected to result in licensing revenue for Duke Medicine."
The head of Jubilant, Hari Bhartia, is a member of the board of Duke’s Global Health Institute (quite an impressive board, I must say). In connection with Obama's visit, he played a prominent rule in the Mumbai business summit and a Delhi round table with India’s finance minister.
Bhartia is not only into pharmaceuticals, but pizza, with 236 Domino’s stores. Sorry, could not resist passing that along.
FC tip: more Duke Medicine to come in India, watch for name of Ratan Tata.
A good autumn weekend. A football victory! The start of basketball. Duke Medicine shines. GO DUKE!
