Medical schools expand in foreign countries

Late last month, Robert Taber stood among throngs of people in Delhi, India.

Two gleaming office towers rose above the crowd, home to IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Construction crews hustled to finish a hospital nearby. But on the ground, squatters were everywhere. Then came the camels.

Taber is Duke University's vice chancellor for corporate and venture development. It is his job to look past the crowds, the camels, the towers and the squalor to find a business partner.

This is how global medicine works these days for many large medical schools. "Some of our most important corporate partners are now other countries," Taber said.

That would explain why a small contingent from UNC-Chapel Hill spent part of the past month talking with Singapore officials. Near the top of their agenda is a joint pharmacy school.

International partnerships are nothing new for American universities. But medical schools are taking those relations to a new level.

Classes are scheduled to begin in the fall at the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School on that nation's Outram campus. Singapore's government will pay Duke $310 million over seven years to establish the school.

UNC-Chapel Hill visited the school last month to talk about research and business opportunities, said Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development.

Dhiren Thakker, an associate dean at UNC's School of Pharmacy, was among the group.

"We have been invited by several countries, especially in Asia, to establish a school of pharmacy," he said. "It makes sense for us to consider this. Western countries are not going to be at the center of the industry forever, and we want to have a presence."

The shift from academic partner to academic-business partner could trigger significant changes in medical research and even where patients travel for medical care.

Duke and UNC-CH are interested in Biopolis, a new biomedical research campus in Singapore. With government support, the first seven buildings on that campus were occupied within 20 months of the groundbreaking.

That pace, breathtakingly fast by U.S. standards, offers some insight on how aggressively Singapore is attacking research. That means Singapore's partners could quickly benefit, Waldrop said.

In his office at Duke, Taber lays out the results of the partnerships in a different way -- literally spelling it out on a white board hanging from the wall.

On the left side of the white board, "Singapore" is scribbled in the margin. It represents Duke's partnership with the Singapore Graduate Medical School.

On the right side of the board are the words "local community." It doesn't say "Durham," but that would be a logical community to envision, Taber said.

Between Singapore and Durham, the chart describes an interlocking chain of Duke University institutes and clinics. Every group on this board -- from Singapore to Durham -- is intended to work together, sharing information about research, trials and treatments.

"This is what people are talking about when we talk about a global community that is connected," Taber said. "This is why those hospitals in India and Singapore matter to us."

Taber offered another thought that could eventually determine where patients travel for treatments.

When the hospital he saw in India opens, Taber expects that it will provide care for about 25 percent of U.S. hospital rates. Many of the doctors will be trained in the United States. They will earn far less than they would in the U.S. but live well because of the huge difference in the cost of living.