About Health Sciences South Carolina

Health Sciences South Carolina was founded in April 2004 with a vision of improving the health and economic well-being of the state through a coordinated strategy to advance research and education. The founding partners include two of the state’s largest healthcare systems and two of the state’s research universities, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, Palmetto Health, the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina. They created this unique public-private partnership to leverage existing resources, secure investment, attract partners, create momentum and drive results. After a single year, the collaborative has grown to include Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and Clemson University and has begun affecting change and achieving results.

Health Sciences South Carolina has made a strategic decision to focus its resources on the creation of a Clinical Research Center of Economic Excellence that consists of two integrated research units – one dedicated to statewide clinical research and the other to statewide health services research. All clinical research activity will be clustered within focus areas of neurosciences, cancer and vascular diseases, each with the ability to deliver tangible results. By targeting some of our state’s most vulnerable health issues – cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease – the collaborative aims toward quickly improving the state’s health status. An already funded proposal may soon be mapping the brain’s activity in an effort to treat the devastating effects of stroke. The health services research unit is being developed around research in areas that target clinical effectiveness and patient safety, issues of paramount importance to health care today. Practically speaking, our first endowed chair in that area may soon be training health care workers on computerized human simulators and measuring the effectiveness of that training. Researchers at all partner institutions will be readily translating scientific discovery to the bedside in clinical trials throughout the state.

In its first 18 months of endeavors, Health Sciences South Carolina funded two Endowed Chair proposals, has a third just approved for funding, and has submitted three additional proposals for funding consideration in 2006. MUSC and USC integrated their two Schools of Pharmacy into the SC College of Pharmacy and expanded it to Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center’s campus. Research campuses are being developed in three regions of the state and Life Sciences Act infrastructure funding is being directed toward facility development on those campuses.

Each member of Health Sciences South Carolina is a substantial driver of the state’s economy and an essential provider of health services, education and research. Collectively, they stand as a significant economic engine, powering a total statewide economic impact of nearly $8.5 billion in 2004, according to USC’s Moore School of Business, Division of Research. This impact includes 47,100 employees comprising one out of every 38 jobs in the state and representing 3.3 percent of South Carolina’s total employee compensation. Together, the four founding partners along with Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and Clemson University are responsible for the lion’s share of the health sciences academic and research programs in South Carolina. Individually, the four hospitals are among the state’s largest providers of healthcare services. The group and their respective boards have made significant financial and philosophical commitments to realizing a bold vision. These investments, project by project, in health sciences research and education will promote the best interests of the state as a whole, not burdened by politics, geographic boundaries and self-interests.

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