Nationwide Children’s to Chair Coalition to Identify Joint Research Venture among the State’s Children’s Hospitals

Last July, when touring Nationwide Children’s, Governor John Kasich offered $2 million in funding for research, provided that the hospital share it with like-institutions within the state on a collaborative research project.  A task force of hospital officials from Cincinnati Children’s, Dayton Children’s, Akron Children’s, Rainbow Babies and Children’s in Cleveland, and Toledo Children’s, chaired by Nationwide Children’s Dr. John Barnard, will soon convene to begin identifying potential joint research projects to present to Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation.

Kasich has stipulated that any projects must align with his economic-development goal of creating a medical corridor within the state.
 
“The governor has a passion for children’s health research. Why not marry that with what portends to be a strong economic-development imprint created by the corridor?” Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said yesterday. “It’s still a great thing that’s happening here for children’s research."

In June, Kasich convened leaders from some of Ohio’s leading hospitals to coordinate research and expertise in a manner that would make the state a location for biomedical, health-care and other field-related companies to move and create jobs.

For full details, see the story in the Dispatch: 
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/08/27/hospitals-to-plan-for-kasichs-2m-grant.html