George Chouman, CEO of ACV Auctions, talks to Matt about learning the essentials of business from his parents at a young age; why he left Synacor, Inc., a multi-million dollar company to lead ACV Auctions and pursue his passion for startups; and how he’s able to give back the mentorship he once received as a young entrepreneur through his involvement with Launch NY.
Dr. Kathryn D. Bass is a master at staying calm and juggling the big stuff.
As medical director of trauma for Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, her focus is on the mission ahead – moving the Emergency Department and other related services to the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital in November.
On a simplistic level, it’s akin to moving to a larger home. And that’s a good thing for Bass, who oversees coordination of surgery, the helipad and Emergency Department.
The current space for pediatric emergency services will double at the new facility on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. On the rooftop of the new Oishei facility is a new helipad, ready and waiting to be used.
“We’ve really outgrown our space,” Bass said.
[Related: Children’s Hospital devising plan to move tiniest, most critical patients]
Bass spoke recently with The Buffalo News for an ongoing series of interviews with key Children’s Hospital staff ahead of the November move from the Bryant Street hospital to the new site on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Q: How will the new trauma and emergency service area be different from the existing hospital?
A: We had an opportunity with the new hospital to design the space to meet our needs, where in our current facility we’re more or less fitting into what we have. We’ve really outgrown the space that we have. So the new space is an opportunity to have a clean slate, and to take the process of caring for a seriously injured child and to create a pathway and a flow of care in a physical space that makes more sense.
Q: How does the size compare?
A: We have larger resuscitation rooms and our rooms are all oriented around a central space, a core space and are closer to the ambulance drop-off location. We’re not too far away now, but we have patients that come from the helipad that have to descend through the hospital and around corners and such and the ambulance bay and throughout to our current rooms are not too bad. We’re more or less replicating that and getting a little more efficiency around helipad transfer.
Q: You’ll have two helipads in close proximity – one at Buffalo General and now the Children’s Hospital one. How is that coordination going to work?
A: (Buffalo General) and (Gates Vascular Institute) service the stroke center, and have their own set of patients they are taking care of. As a trauma center, we are also servicing urgent care for the pediatric patients. So it just essentially keeps the flow of patients uncongested and streamlined into specific urgent care.
Q: How will your ER operations be improved?
A: We are definitely going to gain more space in the new ER. In the trauma resuscitation rooms, we are a little bit bigger and we’re cohorted together near the CT scanner. So we’re going to get some radiology resources, and that’s new. Right now, we have to get on an elevator and go up one floor. And in the new facility, we’ll have the CT scanner in the ED department, so we’ll have a dedicated scanner which we will use frequently for trauma patients. The ED is definitely going to be bigger and better organized. We’re coming from smaller operating rooms that were designed years ago before we had all the technology that we’ve come to rely on in the operating suite. We’ve outgrown our current space. Getting into the new hospital is going to give us a much more comfortable operating room than we have right now.
Q: How will this transition go to the new hospital?
A: We’re doing a staged move so that we have resources here, and we have resources there, already in place. We’ll basically have staff available here, as we’re moving. We’re not going to open and be fully servicing that (new) emergency department until we have all of our patients and all of our staff moved over there. Once we get everything operational and up and running there, then we’ll close down here. I think moving and delivering care, and ramping up to have that available, that’s something we’ve been planning for the last two years.
Q: Say you have a trauma patient who needs surgery at 2 in the afternoon the day of the move, when does that patient get moved over?
A: We’ll do all that patient’s surgery and that patient’s recovery here, and as soon we have the staffing and the bed available there, we’ll make the transition by ambulance.
Q: What’s the most challenging part going to be?
A: Getting all the processes to work in the new space. It’s going to be beautiful and everyone is very excited, but we’re in a new space. We’ve mocked all of that and done a dry run. We have a sense of practicing that, and then it will be just living through it for the first week or so. Like anything, you are moving into a new house and unpacking and making sure that you know where everything is.
Q:What will it be like being part of a booming medical campus?
A: It’s incredibly exciting. It’s an opportunity to really reap the benefit of everything that we are as a university and health care system because we have the combination of University at Buffalo medical school and the clinical operations of Kaleida for children and adults, and the vascular GVI and the translational research center. So it’s very exciting. It’s really bringing us to a new plateau. It’s a quantum leap from where we are right now. And it brings us on par with some of the major players in the industry.
Catching that train to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus may soon have a silver lining, depending on where you live.
Those who commute to the Medical Campus and are looking to hop the Metro Rail, but live a good distance from it, may get some help to get to the train and back home so they don’t have to drive and search for parking.
The non-profit organization that coordinates transportation and other neighborhood initiatives on the Medical Campus is looking for ways to help smooth the way for would-be train commuters who don’t live close to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s Metro line.
“We’re trying to see if we can implement a shuttle service, bike share or van pool,” said Thea Hassan, BNMC’s newly hired transportation program manager. “It’s being considered.”
It all ties into the organization’s goal to encourage people working and studying on campus – and living near it – to choose healthier options and to help minimize parking crunches on the campus and neighborhood streets.
[Related: Medical Campus hires transportation program manager]
“Our goal is a new way of thinking. Instead of expanding the supply, we’re trying to reduce the demand,” Hassan said of BNMC’s transportation initiatives. “We’re trying to tackle from bottom up, top down, and all of our sides.”
Hassan has dubbed the shuttle idea “First mile, last mile.” The big focus is to help people who live a mile or so away from the Metro line. “How do we get them there and back home?” she said.
No decision has been made, but the organization is working on helping to make it easier for commuters to use the Metro Rail to get to the newly renovated Allen Street Medical Station, which is located inside the University at Buffalo’s new medical school building under construction at Allen and Main streets.
Credit is due to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus for encouraging employees to use greener and healthier means of getting to and from work by taking advantage of public transportation and pedal power.
It is a good strategy for easing the parking crunch that will only get worse with thousands more workers about to join the workforce. And it will help those employees and medical school students develop lifelong habits that will benefit themselves and the environment.
The grounds of the Medical Campus have been bustling. Gates Vascular Institute and the University at Buffalo’s Clinical and Translational Research Center opened in 2012. Conventus Medical Office Building and Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Clinical Sciences Center opened within the past year.
The John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are scheduled to open by the end of the year.
Credit is due to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus for encouraging employees to use greener and healthier means of getting to and from work by taking advantage of public transportation and pedal power.
It is a good strategy for easing the parking crunch that will only get worse with thousands more workers about to join the workforce. And it will help those employees and medical school students develop lifelong habits that will benefit themselves and the environment.
The grounds of the Medical Campus have been bustling. Gates Vascular Institute and the University at Buffalo’s Clinical and Translational Research Center opened in 2012. Conventus Medical Office Building and Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Clinical Sciences Center opened within the past year.
The John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are scheduled to open by the end of the year.
There will be an astounding number of people in a relatively small space. It would be virtually impossible to create the parking infrastructure that would be needed if everyone drives to work.
Instead, the BNMC is taking a proactive wp-contentroach in getting its expected 15,000 employees to work each day. The nonprofit umbrella organization coordinates transportation and other neighborhood initiatives on the 120-acre Medical Campus.
Officials recently hired a new program manager, Thea Hassan, to work on neighborhood transportation initiatives. Hassan is trying to get folks out into the sunshine and fresh air by persuading them to bicycle to work.
For those concerned about which route to take or who want to brush up on the rules of the road, Hassan is creating the Bike Sherpa. It’s an ingenious buddy system designed to ease the nervousness beginners might feel about a bicycle commute.
GoBike Buffalo and Reddy Bikeshare have been an integral part of the effort to replace pushing the gas pedal with pushing the bike pedals. Reddy Bikeshare had more than a half-dozen rental bikes on campus last year. This year a second station on the Medical Campus is being added, bringing the total to 200 bikes at 35 stations throughout the city. The bikes rent by the hour or through a yearly $55 membership. There will be a free trial membership to encourage employees to bike to work.
The Bike Sherpa service would be available once every few weeks for a limited time and is free and open to Medical Campus employees.
The nonprofit will also work to make it easier for commuters who want to use Metro Rail. The newly renovated Allen-Medical Campus Station is inside UB’s new medical school building, making it very convenient for workers, students and visitors. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is providing even more incentive to take public transportation with a six-month trial of a corporate discount program that could cut the cost of a $75 monthly pass to as low as $38.50 for some bus and rail commuters.
Parking crunches are signs of the growing importance of the Medical Campus. Plans to ease them show forward thinking.
Matt talks with Roseanne Haggerty, President of Community Solutions, which works to end homelessness and the conditions that cause it. She highlights specific projects in Hartford, Brownsville (Brooklyn) and Times Square; their role in helping communities reorganize the way they work; building high-performing command centers with the full team at the table; providing the freedom to challenge old assumptions; and cultivating an edgy workplace culture.
In yet another unmistakable sign that the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is coming into its own, UBMD Physicians’ Group is beginning to move into the Conventus building.
The goal of having physicians, researchers and medical students all working together is taking shape. The result should further solidify the Medical Campus as an integral part of the area’s economic engine and help stretch its reputation beyond local borders. More immediate is the opportunity for medical professionals to interact.
As reported in The News, UBMD, which formed in 2005 as the umbrella organization for 18 separate medical specialty practices, has begun centralizing in one location more than 100 of its doctors. In all, the group has more than 500 doctors affiliated with the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The group includes an additional 1,200 health professionals and staff.
The seven-story medical building at 1001 Main St. is the bridge between Medical Campus institutions. As News medical reporter Henry L. Davis wrote, it has direct connections to the University at Buffalo’s new Jacobs School and to the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. Both are in the final stages of construction.
The pediatric hospital is connected to Buffalo General Medical Center and Gates Vascular Institute. UBMD’s own move to the Medical Campus is a welcome change for doctors who have been working in separate locations, communicating but not meeting.
There is a benefit when medical professionals have the opportunity to share ideas face to face on a regular basis. Such human connections can crystallize ideas, something that might not hwp-contenten over a telephone line, email or Skype. It is the case for many industries: consulting with colleagues helps improve ideas; in this case, ideas for better patient care.
As Dr. Kevin J. Gibbons, executive director of UBMD and a neurosurgeon with UB Neurosurgery, said: “There are doctors I have had working relationships with for years but rarely or never met. Now, we’ll be meeting.”
Twelve of its medical practices crossing a spectrum of specialties have moved or will be moving into Conventus within the next two months: dermatology, family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, obstetrics-gynecology, orthopedics/sports medicine, pathology, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery and urology.
Children’s Hospital and the Jacobs School are expected to complete transitioning to the campus this fall. With the moves, 15,000 people are expected to work on the campus.
The Medical Campus has grown from a concept to a reality reaching the stage where medical students and professionals are scouting their new terrain.
Synergy is a buzz word that can be overused. But that synergy is an important reason for the Medical Campus. The decision by UBMD to move to Conventus is a gain for an important element of the new Buffalo.
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. has hired Thea Hassan from one of its partners, GoBike Buffalo, to help tackle transportation issues on the expanding Medical Campus.
Hassan, who began working as transportation program manager two weeks ago, previously worked as communication outreach director for GoBike Buffalo, where she first began volunteering prior to being hired in 2015.
An Ithaca native who also has worked for Ecology & Environment as a proposal coordinator and editor, Hassan said she welcomes the opportunity to further enhance transportation initiatives – with a health emphasis in mind – as the campus continues to grow.
By late fall, the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital will open and shortly thereafter, the University at Buffalo’s medical school will open – bringing even more workers, students and patients and their families to campus.
“There are a number of things we are looking at and we really try to look at transportation holistically,” said Hassan, who rides her bike daily to work on a 2-mile commute through all seasons of the year. “Our goal is a new way of thinking. Instead of expanding the supply, we try to reduce demand.”
Hassan said one of the top priorities is that BNMC – the non-profit umbrella organization of the anchor institutions that make up the 120-acre Medical Campus – works to restructure its transportation management association with institution partners on campus such as UB, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Kaleida Health among many others to address current and expected transportation needs.
“We’re working with them and local partners, such as GoBike Buffalo, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority and the city, to really tackle the transportation issues on campus,” she said. “We’re restructuring in order to better address campus needs.”
Another new hire for the BNMC is Elizabeth Machnica, who is a healthy communities catalyst, joining the organization’s healthy communities team that works on initiatives that support and promote healthy food and active living among campus employees and residents in surrounding communities.
In addition to serving as a liaison to the many partners the organization works with, Machnica will work on programs that encourage healthy food and lifestyle choices among Medical Campus employees and the greater community.
Machnica also conducts public health research through the lens of food and physical activity at the University at Buffalo’s Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab under Dr. Samina Raja. Prior to joining the BNMC, she served as a health educator dietitian with Wellness Corporate Solutions and sports dietitian with UB’s Athletics Department.
We are excited to announce our Spring Build a Better Business Series in LEARN at the Innovation Center! The program is made up of seminars and workshops designed to provide entrepreneurs and startup business teams with the education and guidance they need to successfully design, launch, and grow their new companies. All sessions are free and open to the community, but registration is required.
Upcoming sessions:
March 30: Lead Generation, presented by Tipping Point Communications
April 5: Hiring Your First Employee, presented by Holly Nowak
Visit our website for the full series, including topics on marketing and branding, sales, finance, hiring, strategic planning and more!
Matt and Joanne Lee, Collaborative Learning Director for Active Living by Design, talk about keeping your feet on the ground while working on a national scale; local elected officials setting the tone to transform communities; social media lifting community voices; and the importance of carving out time to learn.
This podcast is available through iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher Radio.
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A plan to create a more self-contained power grid on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus that would enable it to better maintain operations during blackouts moved forward Thursday when the state awarded nearly $1 million in funding to the project.
The Medical Campus plan was one of 11 projects statewide to win funding from a state-sponsored program to encourage the development of microgrids as a way to introduce more renewable energy into the power grid, while also creating stronger backup systems at essential facilities.
The funding, through the second round of the state’s NY Prize microgrid competition, will fund a study that will develop a blueprint for the Medical Campus microgrid and outline its costs, said Paul Tyno, the Medical Campus’ director of energy initiatives.
A microgrid would allow the Medical Campus to continue to function and provide critical services during a prolonged blackout. While hospitals are required to have backup generation, those generators have limited capacity and can only run for as long as their fuel supply lasts.
In contrast, a microgrid would include those generators, as well as renewable energy, such as solar power. That would allow the Medical Campus to operate more systems and for a longer period, perhaps as long as a week, Tyno said.
“We want the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to be a safe haven in the event of a problem,” Tyno said.
A microgrid, because of its more self-contained nature, also can help the region’s power grid during times of peak demand by reducing its use of conventionally generated electricity.
The study that the $950,000 in funding will allow the Medical Campus to undertake is a precursor to a third and final round of the NY Prize competition, which will provide funding to build the microgrids that are selected as winners, likely by the end of 2018. The project received $100,000 in state funding for a feasibility study through the contest’s first round in 2015.
Tyno said the scope of the Medical Campus microgrid means that the NY Prize funding probably would not cover all of its construction costs.
State officials also view the microgrid contest as a way to study the impact those systems can have on the power grid, as more lower capacity, highly localized sources of renewable energy are added to New York’s generating capacity.
“It’s absolutely huge. It really, really is,” Tyno said. “It’s got an impact here in Western New York as a whole, because this is how energy is going to work in the future.”
Buffalo, N.Y., March 23, 2017 — The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced today that the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) is one of eleven organizations throughout New York State to receive funding for Stage 2 of the NY Prize Community Microgrid Competition. The competition is part of Governor Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) comprehensive energy strategy to build a clean, resilient and affordable system for all New Yorkers. Black & Veatch, a global engineering firm, will be the lead partner to complete the scope of work.
The project includes funding from NYSERDA and an in-kind contribution, in the form of labor, from the BNMC bringing the Stage 2 commitment to $950,000. Funding will be used to conduct a detailed engineering and financial plan that will include an audit grade design of a microgrid to serve the Medical Campus and potentially its surrounding neighborhoods. In 2015, the BNMC was awarded $100,000 for Stage 1 of the NY Prize, which supported an initial feasibility study, bringing the total project commitment to $1,050,000. A total investment of $1.8 million has been made to date in energy-related projects through BNMC, primarily centered on the development of a potential microgrid and two REV demonstration projects with National Grid.
The BNMC Microgrid is the only funded project in Western New York. As a dynamic consortium of world-class hospitals and health care settings, exceptional education institutions, and innovative research facilities, this project affords the opportunity as a “city within a city” to test new, innovative models for energy. And, while all microgrids seek to improve energy resiliency, particularly in the face of emergencies or extreme weather events, the BNMC will also have a significant focus on developing a microgrid business model that will drive cost savings and potential monetization opportunities for its member institutions.
A BNMC microgrid will enable the Medical Campus to serve as a refuge and provide critical services during a catastrophic event. It can also strengthen the central grid and provide relief to strained systems during periods of high electricity demand.
Additionally, microgrids enhance community economics by attracting new businesses and reducing or delaying infrastructure investment (costs) especially in this digital age where power quality and reliability are key elements in growth. Finally, it improves the environment. Advanced software and control capabilities with access to multiple sources of power generation allow more renewables to be integrated into the system.
According to Paul Tyno, Director of Energy Initiatives for the BNMC, “This is a significant win, not only for the Medical Campus but for our entire community in leading the way to a more energy resilient future for Western New York. We are thrilled to be recognized and supported by NYSERDA for this important work that we believe will lead to greater efficiency, affordability and the ability to ensure continuous energy for our Medical facilities and our surrounding neighborhoods in the event of an emergency or other catastrophic event. This is a tremendous example of how anchor institutions can lead the way in innovation, leading to specific benefits for their communities.”
John Rhodes, President and CEO of NYSERDA commented, “The Medical Campus presents a unique and important model for a microgrid in that it is not led by a municipality. We have great confidence in the ability of the Medical Campus to design a microgrid that affords significant value for the Campus and the surrounding community. We see this as an important component in the Governor’s vision for clean, resilient and affordable energy systems across New York State.”
About the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC)
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) is a self-sustaining social enterprise successfully combining innovation, job creation, and urban revitalization. It serves as the umbrella organization of the anchor institutions that make up the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus located within the 120-acre campus bordering Allentown, the Fruit Belt and Downtown. The BNMC fosters conversation and collaboration among its member institutions, its partners and the community to address critical issues impacting them, including entrepreneurship, energy, access and transportation, workforce and procurement, neighborhoods, and healthy communities, with the goal of increasing economic development and building a strong community. www.bnmc-old.local.
# # #
For more information, contact: Susan Kirkpatrick
716-866-8002/skirkpatrick@bnmc-old.local
Paul Tyno is a respected energy industry professional who is responsible for implementing the Campus Energy Innovation Plan with our partners, member institutions and surrounding neighborhoods. His background includes building, designing and implementing complex demand response/load management programs and related demand side management solutions. Paul is a nationally recognized industry spokesperson and demand response subject area expert. He is the past Chairman of the Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA), a professional industry organization.
Why the focus on Energy for a Medical Campus?
No one really understands the value of energy until you don’t have it. For any medical institution, it is a foundational element that drives so much including all of the equipment, technology, and research, so ensuring continuous, high-quality power is critical. Any disruption can have significant, and potentially life threatening implications. In this digital age, there are also differing levels of power quality and, because of the nature of medical institutions, the quality has to be higher than other energy users. If your lights flicker at home, it is no big deal, but a similar disruption to sensitive medical equipment or technology could have profound implications.
How do the Campus and its member institutions benefit from a focus on energy?
From the beginning, we understood that it was important to create a high-level energy environment for the Campus and its medical institutions. As a campus with multiple institutions, we recognized that we have more robust opportunities for collective action that can maximize efficiencies and that our member institutions could socialize the costs to realize these benefits. Working together may also bring more diversification to the strategies we employ that may not have been possible if member institutions worked alone. By focusing our efforts in this way, we can drive value for our member institutions.
As a “city within a city,” the BNMC is also in a unique position to drive change in the energy arena in ways that municipalities and utilities simply can’t. We can test, deploy and execute new wp-contentroaches that can become catalyst for change and potentially a model for others. The Medical Campus and our overall region also benefit because high quality infrastructure signals innovation and a progressive wp-contentroach that attracts companies and professionals to this area.
How did the Energy Initiative begin on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus?
As the BNMC was completing its Campus Master Plan, we began having informal conversations with National Grid who challenged us to consider energy implications and to think about energy more holistically as we planned for growth. That resulted in us collaborating to create EnergizeBNMC, a Campus energy plan that looked at the long term. By creating an energy plan, we put in place a formal planning structure that included energy considerations in the planning phase of development. This allowed us to collectively plan for future growth and ensure that the energy needs of the Campus could be met effectively and efficiently as part of the overall development plan.
After a career in industry and on the consulting side of the energy business, what was it about working for the non-profit BNMC that interested you?
The social impact of BNMC’s work and its energy focus was very wp-contentealing to me. Also, having been born and raised here, I was also drawn to the Buffalo-centric nature of the work – I like having a role, even on a small level, in Buffalo’s rebirth.
BNMC was recently awarded NY Prize for the design of a microgrid – what does that mean for the Medical Campus?
Regardless of the award, our focus has been the development of the Medical Campus and our surrounding neighborhoods as a self-sustaining energy hub, enabling us to “island” from the existing grid in the event of a catastrophe or to optimize energy on “blue sky” days. We had begun planning for the development of a microgrid before NY Prize was introduced and it has helped us to fund the project. Collectively, the Campus wants to maximize economic value through the effective use of energy resources – both those that exist and future ones. While all microgrids seek to improve energy resiliency, particularly in the face of emergencies or extreme weather events, the BNMC will also have a significant focus on developing a microgrid business model that will drive cost savings and potential monetization opportunities for its member institutions.
How significant is the award and the work ahead?
The NY Prize for the design of the Medical Campus microgrid is very significant. The BNMC was one of only eleven other projects funded at this stage. We had been awarded $100,000 from Stage 1 NY Prize in 2015 for the initial feasibility study and now the Stage 2 funding, at wp-contentroximately $900,000, will help fund a more detailed design plan. This stage will allow us to develop strategies to outline technology, assets, location, ownership, operations and performance expectations. Once completed, our member institutions will have the necessary information they will need to make decisions about enacting any or all parts of the plan and the role they want to play. We envision this wp-contentroach will allow the Medical Campus to be connected and run parallel with the existing grid or to disconnect and run independently as a collective unit, providing the high quality power we require.
There are other benefits beyond core energy benefits as well including improving our ability to attract investment, new partners and new companies to the region. It also positions us as a model for other cities, Medical Campuses or Innovation Districts who may be interested in building a more robust energy plan for their region. Because the Medical Campus does not have a single point of governance, we may present a more “real world” model and be able to share lesson learned on collaboration and partnership.
What is the future goal or ideal state regarding Energy on Campus?
Even if our current vision of a self-sustaining energy hub becomes are reality, I don’t think we ever envision to be completely done with our energy work, as it is very dynamic. We will need to continue to respond and innovate based on the economics, the policy and regulatory environment and the evolution of technology and innovation in the marketplace. Collaboration with our member institutions and industry partners makes this possible and I envision it will continue for the foreseeable future.
The number of companies on the 120-acre Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus has grown to more than 150, according to the nonprofit organization that oversees the campus.
In 2002, when the campus was in its infancy, there were three companies.
Companies counted by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. include those located in its entrepreneurial hub; University at Buffalo’s Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences; UB Gateway; Hauptman-Woodward Research Institute; Conventus; 73 High St. and 847 Main St. It also includes services providers and tenants that have offices within one of the buildings on campus but may be headquartered elsewhere.
The campus is a diverse mix of companies and not solely focused on health care and life sciences. Social impact and technological-based companies also are on the uptick, along with a major push of those interested in starting or growing a business.
[PHOTO GALLERY: UB’s downtown medical school nears completion]
The number of people working on the Medical Campus will expand this fall when UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences opens to faculty and then in January to students. Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo operations will move to the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital in November.
The state recently awarded $625,000 to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to expand its business development program. In the past year, there has been $750 million of investment and 700 construction workers on the campus, according to Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc.
Matt talks with designer & futurist Chris Cowart about the impact of technology in on city planning and staying ahead of disruption; practical wp-contentlication of the importance of reverse mentoring; humanizing medical technologies; the importance of engaging youth in emerging sports, and much more.
This podcast is available through iTunes and Stitcher Radio.
Listen now at talkingcities.libsyn.com.
The buildings rising from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus have been touted for bringing more jobs downtown and rapidly changing the neighborhood.
But there’s another bonus: the views from the windows of the new buildings under construction or recently built.
If you will work in or take classes in the University at Buffalo’s new Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, you are in for amazing sights. The John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the Gates Vascular Institute also offer sweeping views.
And views from a sixth-floor office suite show the city’s church steeples, rooftops and architecture, as well as the core of downtown, including the tops of prominent buildings such as City Hall, One Seneca Tower and the Electric Tower, among many other local landmarks.
Matt talks with Clara Miller, President of the F.B. Heron Foundation, about Heron’s leadership in shining a light on the need for impact investing alongside mission investing; how asset managers and corporations are responding to millennials and why it’s important; and why the old Girl Scout adage “leave the campsite better than we found it” still wp-contentlies.
This podcast is available through iTunes and Stitcher Radio.
Listen now at talkingcities.libsyn.com.
With over $750 million of investment, three cranes in the air and 700 construction workers on the Medical Campus this past year, our growth is undeniable as we continue to build the New Buffalo! We’re celebrating these developments to our great city and are looking forward to future advancements in the years ahead.
We’ve been planning and coordinating with our member institutions for many years to accommodate the influx of patients, visitors, employees and students on our transportation system and infrastructure. As the Campus grows, our Transportation Management Association (TMA), a collaboration of the BNMC, our member institutions, and regional transportation-related entities, continually monitors, plans for, and manages parking and transportation options.
We adhere to smart growth principles as we seek to build a dense, walkable urban environment that is attractive to local employers and companies outside the region looking for a wonderful place to relocate and grow. We work with a number of stakeholders to develop better options for the people who work on this Campus, as well as patients, students, and visitors, and our overall community and region.
Here’s a brief overview of our recent transportation planning efforts:
Planning for parking and transportation has been a critical component of our work for our 15 year history. Learn more about transportation and parking plans for the Medical Campus on our website.
Almost 15 years ago, as leaders in the Western New York health field began to hatch ideas for a new medical campus in the Buffalo Fruit Belt, a tiny nonprofit designed to help nurture the effort got its first wellness grant.
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. has been working behind the scenes in the years since as cranes have come and gone on the 120-acre swath north of downtown, and the number of buildings has grown.
Its charge: Turn the Medical Campus into a model for healthy living across the region – and support similar efforts elsewhere.
“The campus is becoming more of a neighborhood than a medical community,” said Jonathan McNeice, who is helping plan the transformation. “Neighborhoods have people who want active things to do. They want access to food and healthy lifestyles. So the bigger picture is that we see the campus as a place of wellness and not just a place you come to for sick care.”
If the Medical Campus is to become a microcosm for a healthier Buffalo Niagara, its leaders must be able to answer key questions, including:
Fueled by more than $7 million in grants – starting with a $200,000 Active Living by Design grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. (BNMC) and its like-minded partners have begun to change the campus in the following ways.
1. TRANSPORTATION AND LAND USE
Justin Booth, left, and Thea Hassan, both of GObike Buffalo, helped get bike lane markings on Ellicott Street on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and continue to work to make the campus more bicycle friendly. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
One of the largest challenges the Medical Campus faces is that almost everybody who steps foot in the neighborhood takes a car to get there.
“I think for the revitalization of any city, you need a critical mass of people so that the transit options, the bike options, the car share options will be successful,” said McNeice, a healthy communities planner on the Medical Campus. “To be a modern urban city, you want to be multi-mobile. Maybe you want to take the subway part of the way and take your bike on the subway so that if you want to ride it the rest of the way to work, or run an errand or go to lunch, you’ve got that option.”
Work has begun to double the size of a parking ramp to 1,800 spaces behind the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, which is expected to open late this year.
Parking for patients and visitors will continue to be paramount, but the more than 12,000 people employed on the campus are encouraged to find other means to get to and from their workplaces, McNeice said. They can visit gobnmc-old.local to learn how.
“You’re looking at a dense urban core, where people want to live and want to work because it’s exciting,” said Kari Root Bonaro, BNMC communications director. “We really would like to get more employees to take transit, to walk, to bike, to live closer to campus. There’s both the healthy living aspect as well as building community.”
Reddy Bike Share plans to boost the number of rental bikes on the Medical Campus this year. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
The nonprofit also is working with others on a larger effort, gobuffaloniagara.org, to encourage alternative transportation across the region, BNMC Planning Manager Jamie Hamann-Burney said.
The organization helped secure $8.4 million in federal, state and local funding to upgrade Ellicott Street – the spine of the Medical Campus street grid – into a linear park with bike lanes, wider sidewalks, benches and improved lighting. Nearly $7 million more has been allocated for the Allen Street stretch that will connect Allentown to the UB medical school and rest of the campus. Pocket parks – BNMC staff likes to call them “parkettes” – also have been sprinkled throughout the neighborhood.
Reddy Bike Share provided more than a half dozen rental bikes on the campus last year and will return with more bikes in the spring, along with a free trial membership to encourage employees to take advantage of the service. The nonprofit BNMC, which is housed at the Thomas R. Beecher Jr. Innovation Center on Ellicott Street along with nearly 100 health-related startup businesses, put a shipping container in a nearby parking lot for safe, indoor bike storage.
“We’re a medical campus where we offer health care, and a great way to be healthy is by actively commuting,” McNeice said. “Part of that is having the infrastructure.”
2. FOOD
Jonathan McNeice, left a healthy communities planner with Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc., works last fall with Rosemary Wilson, a senior volunteer, in the garden at The Moot Community Center in the Fruit Belt. (John Hickey/Buffalo News)
The Moot Community Center sits five blocks east of Buffalo General Medical Center. It participates in a countywide Stay Fit Dining Program but that doesn’t serve all the nutritional needs of seniors in the Fruit Belt, many of whom have limited financial means, transportation and access to healthy foods. Four of every five seniors who use the High Street center have Type 2 diabetes, said Daysi Ball, its assistant director of development and senior services.
“We get the breads, the desserts, all of the wonderful stuff that we love to eat but aren’t necessarily the most healthy, or the best for our seniors,” Ball said. “We wp-contentreciate everything – it’s very helpful – but we wanted to figure out ways to get more fresh foods and vegetables here.”
So the community center’s leaders – with help from McNeice, Grassroots Gardens, the Massachusetts Avenue Project and the Mulberry Street and Friends Block Club – decided last year to start a community garden and host a weekly farm market at Moot.
The efforts are part of a larger strategy to bring healthier food options to those who will live, work and visit the Medical Campus and surrounding communities in years to come.
McNeice – who grew up in Canada and whose family owned the Lakeside Marketeria in Oakville, Ont. – is the point person in the effort to more meaningfully connect the campus with farmers in the region.
“I got to see the industry changing” in 1990s, when supermarket and hardware chains drove many mom and pop shops out of business, and often bypassed small local suppliers, he said.
McNeice, 38, first came to Buffalo to get his master’s degree in urban planning. He left to work on food policy and wellness planning in Toronto and Edmonton before returning to the city three years ago. While at UB, he worked in the university’s Food Lab, the key player in efforts that have begun to bear fruit on the Medical Campus when it comes to helping forge stronger bonds between hospitals, schools, retailers, community centers and farmers.
“We were fortunate to get Jonathan to come and bring a totally different perspective,” said Matthew Enstice, president and CEO of the BNMC.
Medical Campus planner Jonathan McNeice has worked in Toronto, Edmonton and Buffalo. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)
McNeice and others are at work on a Healthy Corner Store Initiative that looks to bring fresh produce into convenience stores not only on the campus but in neighborhoods across the city where access to fresh fruits and vegetables is limited.
Farmers’ markets have been established at the Salvation Army branch and Buffalo Place along the ring of campus, as well as the Moot Center. The BNMC also worked with Farmers & Artisans last year to set up a “farm-to-work table” that offered regional goods on Wednesdays at the Innovation Center.
The resurgent and growing “farm-to-table” attitude in the region helped spur six community gardens on the Medical Campus, including two fostered by Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc.
Ball is among those who have seen the planning pay dividends.
Grassroots Gardens worked with Moot Center staff and volunteers to clear a patch of land off the back parking lot last spring, plant a strawberry patch and fill nine raised garden beds with vegetables that included heirloom tomatoes, broccoli, squash, kale, cucumbers “and all sorts of peppers,” Ball said. “It really was wonderful. We were not only able to harvest the vegetables here at the center – for use in our kitchen to supplement the lunches – we also were able to distribute the harvest to the seniors.”
Some seniors canned collard greens and Swiss chard, Ball said, and “there were a number of opportunities for them to learn more about the foods and how to incorporate them into their diets.
“Historically, we’ve been more of a social center where you come for social activities,” she said. “The seniors wanted health-related, tangible outcomes. We wanted to provide more preventative programs. We’ve done that.”
3. FITNESS
Attendance at yoga classes in the Innovation Center have been strong, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus officials say. (Mark Mulville/Buffalo News)
David Longhini took his first yoga class on the Medical Campus in January, two days after he started a new job with BlueWolf, a medical sales force consulting company in the dig, or Design Innovation Garage, inside the Innovation Center on Ellicott Street.
“I was definitely down for it,” said Longhini, 24, a Dansville native who lives in the Elmwood Village. “I love everything about what’s hwp-contentening here. One of the top reasons I took the job – I left Rich Products – was to be closer to downtown, the dig and the Medical Campus. It’s very important for me to see this area thrive.”
On the fitness front, the BNMC supported a “100 Days of Summer” last year that brought the Independent Health Fitness in the Parks program onto campus for the first time. It helped throw a fitness festival last June. And the Wellness Institute of Greater Buffalo led a weekly Walking on Wednesday sojourn starting and ending outside Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
The nonprofit also has been a consistent supporter of the Buffalo Green Code, advocating for more bike lanes across Buffalo, including on the Medical Campus.
McNeice, Hamann-Burney and others have worked with GObike Buffalo as they have eyed future transportation in the neighborhood and beyond, and both nonprofits recently were among the organizations to receive a five-year, $250,000 Creating Healthy Schools & Communities grant from the state Department of Health. Among other projects, the grant will provide Healthy Workplace assessments and programming support for businesses on and off the campus.
“Broadly speaking, active living is very important,” McNeice said.
That becomes even more true, he said, on a medical campus that aspires to lead by example.
“Neighbors and communities go up and down with the times but anchor institutions can withstand that,” McNeice said. “Largely, the role we play is that steady force behind the scenes. We’re looking for gaps in how we bring things together.”
Part of the job is asking, “What if?” “How do we help improve our community?”
“What if a medical campus was a place of wellness? What does that look like?” McNeice said. “Maybe it’s a place where you’re not just coming when you’re sick but you go there to get physically active, get fit, learn to cook from scratch. That’s where our head is at going forward.”
email: sscanlon@buffnews.com
Twitter: @BNrefresh, @ScottBScanlon
Matt talks with Su Sanni, co-founder of We Did It, a software platform that helps nonprofits fundraise online, about getting bit by the entrepreneur bug in college; growing up as a first generation Nigerian American; and the surreal experience of waking up one winter morning to find himself on the cover of Black Enterprise.
This podcast is available through iTunes and Stitcher Radio.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to Host Internship Fair for Undergraduate and Graduate Students
WHAT: The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) will host an Internship Fair to connect companies on the Medical Campus with undergraduate and graduate students for spring and summer internships.
WHEN: Thursday, March 2, 2017 from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
WHERE: dig at the Innovation Center, 640 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203
WHO: Nearly 30 companies in a variety of fields will be on hand to meet with local students for potential internship positions in areas including: technology, laboratory, engineering, business development, marketing, and much more.
JMS Technical Solutions is sponsoring the Internship Fair.
The event is free and open to all current undergraduate and graduate level students. To register, go to https://bnmc-old.local/events/bnmc-internship-fair/
ABOUT: The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC Inc.) is a self-sustaining social enterprise successfully combining innovation, job creation, and urban revitalization. It serves as the umbrella organization of the anchor institutions that make up the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus located within the 120-acre campus bordering Allentown, the Fruit Belt and Downtown. The BNMC Inc. fosters conversation and collaboration among its member institutions, its partners and the community to address critical issues impacting them, including entrepreneurship, energy, access and transportation, workforce and procurement, neighborhoods, and healthy communities, with the goal of increasing economic development and building a strong community. www.bnmc-old.local.
# # #
For more information, contact: Susan Kirkpatrick
716-866-8002/skirkpatrick@bnmc-old.local
Observers say there are several reasons why a cluster of ambitious biomedical companies emerged on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
It partly has to do with investments in local facilities such as the University at Buffalo’s Center for Computational Research, the local center for big data projects.
It also is owed to general technological advances, allowing researchers to turn their science into more specific medical testing and more effective cures.
And it has to do with an evolving economy of entrepreneurship in Buffalo, which is finally turning research hotbeds such as UB, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute into engines of economic growth.
“It’s the computing power along with the science and the confluence of all those facilities that are allowing this to occur,” said Kim Grant, a UB business development executive who works with emerging companies.
Those who are paying attention, such as Grant, recognize an obvious trend in biomedical entrepreneurship in Buffalo. There are more companies being founded, gaining funding and building out real businesses rather than just research projects.
One of the breakouts is Athenex, which was established out of UB in 2002 but more recently raised more than $200 million and is leveraging significant government subsidies to build factories in China and Western New York. Company officials are aggressively pursuing an international strategy to design and manufacture cancer therapies.
But it’s not just about one company. Buffalo now hosts dozens of high-tech companies attacking many sides of the medical industry. Companies that are pursuing cancer therapies which direct chemicals directly to tumors won both the UB Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (POP Biotechnologies) and the 43North competition (Oncolinx).
They join the list of growing personalized cancer companies that includes Roswell spin-offs OmniSeq, Photolitec and MimiVax; and For-Robin, out of UB.
Meanwhile, a Buffalo Billion program directed multimillion-dollar grants to two companies in 2016, Garwood Medical Devices and Circuit Clinical. Both are located downtown.
Garwood raised $3.6 million in venture capital in 2016 while Circuit Clinical raised more than $1 million.
Then there are the companies tackling medical testing, such as Empire Genomics, AccuTheranostics and Disease Diagnostic Group.
And that’s just an unscientific sampling of the young companies sprinkled throughout facilities on the medical campus or based near UB’s Amherst footprint, some of which were founded here and others that were recruited.
So when Grant goes to trade shows in Boston or New York City, she doesn’t hear snow jokes anymore, she gets genuine interest.
Local experts are starting to make bold comparisons about historical precedents for the Buffalo medical ecosystem. Dr. Steven Schwaitzberg, an entrepreneur who was a professor at Harvard University before he was recruited to become surgery chair at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, recently said Buffalo looks like Boston in the late 1980s just before it became an international biomedical powerhouse.
And Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute CEO Edward Snell said Buffalo is starting to resemble the Stanford area in California, where a long history of top-notch research blossomed dramatically into a worldwide medical and tech hotbed.
“You’re seeing the same thing in Buffalo, a mixture of industry, academia and clinical experts all in the same area,” Snell said. “We’re seeing incremental growth but we’re nowhere near saturation point yet.”
He said the final key is pulling in more private investment. There are a handful of investment groups that actively consider seed funding for medical companies in Buffalo. But these types of companies often require major capital infusions to catalyze their growth.
Snell said he’s optimistic.
“I see a steady increase in venture capital and federal research funding,” he said. “And I think you’re going to see quite a few stories about that in the not-too-distant future.”
Hear from Norma Nowak, entrepreneur, scientist, innovator and director of UB’s NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. Norma talks about the road that led her to founding Empire Genomics, a spin out company from research developed at Roswell Park Cancer Institute; the critical role her research played in the Human Genome Project; and how the advancement of technology has accelerated the genomics field in ways she couldn’t have imagined.
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Listen now at talkingcities.libsyn.com.
* MEDIA ADVISORY *
Official Launch and Celebration of Buffalo’s First “Idea Lab” to be Held Tuesday, February 28
i4 Studio is a Collaboration between BNMC’s Innovation Center and The International Center for Studies in Creativity
What: A celebration of the official launch of i4 Studio, the first Idea Lab located in Western New York. i4 Studio will offer programs for businesses and individuals to wp-contently creative thinking tools and processes to generate breakthroughs in idea generation, creative problem solving, strategic planning and business modeling.
The concept was created through collaboration between the Innovation Center, powered by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and the International Center for Studies in Creativity (ICSC) located at SUNY Buffalo State. ICSC is the first program to offer the science of creativity at the graduate level and is globally recognized for its programs that teach skills in creative thinking, innovative leadership practices and problem solving skills. For more details go to www.i4studiobuffalo.com.
When: Tuesday, February 28 from 5pm – 7 pm
Where: At i4 Studio is on the third floor of the BNMC’s Innovation Center, located at 640 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Why: The launch event is a chance for interested individuals to visit the i4 Studio and check out its inspiring environment that includes flexible work and meeting space, creative materials, musical instruments, toys and other tools designed to get creative juices flowing!
Attendees can also meet co-directors Vic Nole, Director of Business Development for the BNMC, and Roger Firestien, senior faculty member of the International Center for Studies in Creativity to learn more about offerings at i4 Studio.
Who: The event is free and open to the public. More than 200 individuals are expected to attend including entrepreneurs, students, business owners and individuals.
Learn more: The Innovation Center, powered by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc., is the largest business incubator in Buffalo. It is home to dig, 43North, Z80 Labs, and some of the fastest growing, most successful companies and start-ups in the region. Through its Innovation Center, the BNMC provides workspace, education, business services, and networking opportunities to entrepreneurs and young companies in all industry sectors.
# # #
For more information, contact: Susan Kirkpatrick
In this episode, Matt talks with Dr. Samina Raja, Principal Investigator of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo, about her work with one of the largest USDA grants for food systems research, Growing Food Connections; how she’s married urban planning and public health in her profession and the lessons local governments can learn from this type of collaboration; and how refugees in Buffalo are impacted by their food environments.
This podcast is available through iTunes and Stitcher Radio.
Listen now at talkingcities.libsyn.com.
