UCSF-STANFORD: Grant Could Create Premier Children’s Center
UCSF-Stanford Health Care is poised to receive a "huge grant" of an undisclosed amount from two Packard foundations considering funding projects to provide health care to the region's children, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The awards from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the smaller Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, along with matching funds from the National Institutes of Health, could distinguish the UCSF-Stanford system as "the nation's leading center for children's health." Although the four hospitals are working to hash out preliminary ideas for a proposal to the two foundations, they are expected to suggest a new children's health care facility in San Francisco. In addition, the funds would be used to expand pediatric specialties at the existing four hospitals and would pay for 20 additional medical school faculty. As news of the grants "first trickled out at a meeting of the UC Board of Regents last week," UCSF-Stanford President Peter Van Etten said the total grant package, including matching funds, could amount to "several hundreds of millions of dollars." Stephen Peeps, president of the Lucile Packard Foundation, said his group "did not commit to anything," but added that "we told them ... to take the time this year to develop a plan together that they believe would have a real impact on children's health" (McCabe, 3/24).
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