Laird Center for Medical Research

Groundbreaking Video Transcript

Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton discusses Wisconsin's ongoing medical research collaboration

The National Institutes of Health's vision for 21st century progress describes research teams of the future. In their words: "The NIH envisions dislodging scientists from the silos of their disciplines, to explore new organizational models for team science. NIH anticipates novel public-private partnerships to accelerate scientific discoveries from bench to bedside."

So we have the framework, now, to support that vision with Wisconsin's medical discovery triangle and it is more - this is a powerful engine that can drive growth in our state's economy - and it is up to all of us to imagine the innovative ways that we can combine and leverage resources that are already in place and how we can encourage the productive exploration that results from interdisciplinary collaborations.

And there's a lot of good work already in motion. Marshfield Clinic and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are already in discussions, building on their longstanding collaboration in the area of medical education, expanding its established research collaborations, teaming investigators from the two campuses, exploring how one's unique resources may be shared with the other, and figuring out how they can work together to recruit new talent that really values collaborative and interdisciplinary models for work. And they have already appointed somebody from each others' campus to their advisory board.

Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation scientists have already met with their colleagues at the Medical College of Wisconsin to do much the same, emphasizing bold and creative alliances that accelerate discovery and improve patient care, and they're working with UWM to explore the path to their shared future, as critical centers of research.