Money flows to health centers

Dole gets funds for research, services

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole was in the Triangle on Friday, making stops in Raleigh and Chapel Hill to tout her work to secure funding for health care services and scientific research.

Dole, a Republican from Salisbury, was at WakeMed Raleigh Campus on Friday morning. Dole led efforts in the U.S. Senate to get a special appropriation of $170,000 for the health system's Hospital Emergency Operations Regional Call Center, according to Christine Craig, WakeMed's director of government affairs. The center coordinates communication among first responders and hospitals in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.

Later in the day, Dole visited UNC Hospitals' Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. She announced nearly $4 million in federal funding for three research initiatives at UNC-Chapel Hill. The funding was approved as part of the federal budget appropriation bill signed by President Bush on Dec. 26.

The N.C. Cancer and Genomics Research Center, which is leading a national research effort to better understand the genetics of cancer, received $2.4 million. The Collaborative Initiative in Biomedical Imaging, a joint effort with UNC-Charlotte, will get $984,000 to continue its work in developing noninvasive techniques to follow disease progression in patients with cancer, diabetes and other illnesses.

Finally, the Program in Racial Disparities and Cardiovascular Disease, a collaboration among researchers at UNC-CH and East Carolina University, received more than $560,000. That effort seeks to better understand how race contributes to differences in health care.

Katie Hallaway, communications director for Dole, said the senator met with UNC-CH officials last year to discuss the work its research centers do. She said Dole advocated for UNC-CH to ensure its programs got the appropriate funding.

"I am proud to support the tremendous work being done at UNC and other research institutions in our state," Dole said in a statement.