THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270030
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
In 1971, the Norfolk Area Medical Center Authority promised ``tangible and intangible benefits'' to Virginia's economy from the projected Eastern Virginia Medical School. EVMS is fulfilling that promise handsomely.
Two Old Dominion University researchers reported last week that in 1994 EVMS contributed $513.9 million to the Hampton Roads economy alone. The magnitude of EVMS' economic impact is roughly twice that which Gilbert R. Yochum and Vinod B. Agarwal - both professors of economics at ODU - expected to find.
``I was very surprised,'' said Dr. Yochum. ``I hadn't realized the incredible impact of patient care and the concentration of highly specialized knowledge that a medical school brings - and the economic result of that highly specialized knowledge.''
The researchers said highly specialized knowledge - especially in pediatric, reproductive and diabetic medicine - exists in the region only because of the medical school. This knowledge draws to Hampton Roads, from far and wide, patients in quest of cures and doctors bent on expanding their skills. These outsiders contribute dollars that otherwise would not flow into the regional economy.
A quarter-century ago, Hampton Roads was the only U.S. metropolitan area of at least a million population without a medical school. The state's sole medical schools were creatures of state government - the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and the University of Virginia Medical School in Charlottesville.
Civic, medical and political leaders said that a Hampton Roads medical school would dramatically improve the range and quality of health care available within the region by attracting top medical professionals. That prophecy has come true, too. Hampton Roads is far better served medically today than in the pre-EVMS period.
Stunning medical-technology and pharmacological breakthroughs are major factors in the enhancement of medical services everywhere. But the Hampton Roads medical community exploits these breakthroughs more quickly because of the expertise of health-care providers linked with EVMS.
EVMS also contributes to advances in medicine - notably, but not solely, at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medcine. So EVMS also pulls in research dollars ($26.8 million in 1994) from outside the region. With revenue of $37.6 million from educating 400 medical students and 300 residents.
Economists attribute EVMS' total impact of $513.9 million upon Hampton Roads to ``economic echoes.'' In this case, loud echoes. by CNB