UCSF, UC Berkeley consider new translational medicine degree program

December 4, 2009
By Robin Hindery, UCSF Public Affairs

Universities like UCSF may be the country’s best hope of translating technology into therapies that not only improve health but also bring spiraling health care costs down, according to a panel of experts from academia and industry who gathered recently at Mission Bay.

A Nov. 18 conference about translating technology into cost-effective health care focused on strategies for improving and accelerating the bench-to-bedside transition, and doing so in a way that lowers costs. The event was hosted by the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), which is headquartered at UCSF, and UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering.

Andy Grove, left, former CEO of Intel, participates in a panel discussion about translating technology into cost-effective health care on Nov. 18.

The featured speakers discussed a range of solutions — both theoretical and existing — to the problem of keeping health care simultaneously effective, accessible and affordable.

But the proposal that generated the most buzz came from former Intel CEO Andy Grove, who laid out his vision for a two-year master’s degree program in translational medicine, to be offered first at UCSF and UC Berkeley and eventually at other universities throughout the country.

Grove, who defined translational medicine as “the science and technology of moving medical discoveries into practice, in volume,” said a master’s program would allow for the “focusing of a lot of the scattered effort that takes place at both campuses” already.

Under Grove’s plan, students from UCSF’s medical school and UC Berkeley’s engineering school would all take a set of MBA-style core courses, including cost-accounting, organizational behavior and navigating complex regulatory and patent laws. They would also gain hands-on experience by participating in an original or pre-existing multidisciplinary project, he said.

In addition, Grove proposed, students from each of the two backgrounds — medicine and engineering — would take tailored courses focusing on the other area of expertise. For example, medical students would learn about project management, the engineering process and clinical trial design.

By including individuals with “different world views and experiences,” the program would open the door to new forms of collaboration, Grove said.

Exploring Possibilities

During a panel discussion following Grove’s speech, Matthew Tirrell, PhD, chair of the bioengineering department at UC Berkeley, said the two campuses had already begun to discuss the possibility of a Master of Translational Medicine program.

“We have a document here that starts to outline some of our joint plans,” Tirrell said, holding up a piece of paper. “I think there’s every reason to think this is something we will pursue.”

QB3 Director Regis Kelly, PhD, said he thinks the joint program is “a fantastic idea” and that he’s “100 percent behind it.”

However, he expressed his concern about a funding mechanism to support such an effort.

One way to secure the necessary financial support is to focus on translational medicine’s potential to drive down health care costs, Kelly said, offering the example of genetic testing to determine if a patient is at risk for a certain disease and if so, how he or she can best be screened and treated.

Currently, the private sector is doing little to address rising costs, Kelly added, and therefore universities seem to be the best candidates to take the lead in such an effort.

Recently, QB3 held a one-day workshop for local health economists, engineers and scientists to confront “the issue of creating technologies that could reduce cost while keeping quality the same,” Kelly said.

“We came to the conclusion that it was very possible, but what was lacking was someone to advocate for it at the national level and say this is something that deserves funding,” he said.

UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, has said that translational medicine is central to the University’s mission and to health care reform in general. As chancellor, she said, her job is to champion that cause both locally and nationally to secure the necessary resources to support research and education.