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By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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KALAMAZOO — The announcement of the anonymous $100 million founding gift for the Western Michigan University medical school is one of the most significant steps toward what was little more than an idea three years ago.

With founding dean Hal Jensen in place, a significant portion of the school’s cost covered, many are asking: Can the medical school spur on economic development in Southwest Michigan?

“You don’t build a medical school to spur economic development, but it is one of those things that happen,” said Jack Luderer, associate dean for research and head of the Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center at WMU. “A lot of it emanates from the people you bring into the community. It is the people that ultimately drive that. The more highly educated people you have in the community, the better the opportunities.”

Studies into the impact of medical schools upon the surrounding region show that the impact can be significant.

An American Association of Medical Colleges study found every dollar spent by a medical school or teaching hospital indirectly generates an additional $1.30 when it is re-spent on other businesses or individuals, resulting in a total economic impact of $2.30 per dollar. There are few comparable examples of the economic impact of a new medical school on a community, save the University of Central Florida. UCF brought in its first cohort of medical students in 2009. A 2010 study by Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics, conducted for SpaceCoast Business Magazine, estimates the school would be responsible for 16,000 jobs locally and have $5.2 billion in economic impact.

The net impact of Kalamazoo’s medical school, university officials point out, will be less as there is already a significant medical and life science infrastructure in place.

“Looking at the next steps, the most critical one right now is to make sure that we have an agreed-upon and solid approach to what the medical school is going to be for the next 10 years and beyond,” Luderer said. “The most important part of a CEO’s job is resource allocation. As every person is hired — everything you do with facilities — it must be done with the long-term strategy in mind.”

The Kalamazoo region can leverage its historical and current ties to the life sciences to become a center for national research, said Ron Kitchens, president and CEO of Southwest Michigan First. Big pharma has been drawing down its spend on R&D and discovery research, leaving federally funded grants to backfill the early-stage research. SWMF, drawing on the expertise of William C. Richardson, former president of the Johns Hopkins University and currently on SWMF’s board of directors, is working to create a center for federally and privately funded research that could employ as many as 1,000 research professionals over the next decade.

“The thing to remember is that the med school, while important, is not isolated in its importance. It is the cornerstone of a strategy that is 125 years in the making. We knew for the last decade that we needed to develop intellectual property. In the 1960s, we were in the top 5 of IP centers in the country,” Kitchens said. “A decade from now, we will be one of the nationally recognized health centers in the nation. We are looking to build an international reputation for an integrated health science center. It will mean a large concentration of multi-disciplinary researchers moving to this community because they go where those research dollars and facilities are. We want to compete for those smartest.”

The center, currently in the planning stages at SWMF and in the community, will take a long view on how the region can capitalize on the assets already in place, and how they can interact with the new medical school.

“We are on point … (and) we want to make sure that we are taking advantage of all the knowledge we have here. It is a strategy that has 50 years of impact and relevancy in it,” Kitchens explained. “We need to make sure we build it correctly. The medical school is an important cornerstone. If we don’t capitalize on that opportunity, it will just be another educational institution, which is not its intent, which is to be a driver in the region.”