I thought this was a good article that describes what Pitt and UPMC are trying to accomplish in vision research since recruiting José-Alain Sahel to Pitt in 2016. The article is behind a pay wall at the Pittsburgh Business Times, but is an important undertaking for Pitt, so here it is in two parts.
Creating a new vision: Dr. Jose-Alain Sahel aims to make Pittsburgh a leading center for sight restoration
Dr. Jose-Alain Sahel is the Chairman, Department of Opthamalogy at the University of Pittsburgh’s Eye & Ear Institute.
Joe Wojcik
By Paul J. Gough – Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
Nov 29, 2018, 7:42am EST Updated Nov 29, 2018, 8:51am EST
For Dr. José-Alain Sahel, one of the leading global experts in ophthalmology, time is of the essence when it comes to getting the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital up and running.
Sahel moved to Pittsburgh two years ago to take over the UPMC Eye Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology. Since then, he’s been working tirelessly to make Pittsburgh a groundbreaking center of vision and rehabilitation that will work with the Vision Institute in Paris, which he founded and still directs.
“I don’t see we should wait any day,” Sahel said. “People suffering from vision loss don’t want to wait, and we should never accept any delay when people are waiting for therapy.”
There has already been some delay on the $200 million-plus, 410,000-square-foot facility that will be built on the grounds of UPMC Mercy. It’s the first of three specialty hospitals costing a total of $2 billion that will be built by UPMC over the next five years. And it will not only focus on vision, but also be the center of UPMC’s physical rehabilitation services.
Because it is the first of the three hospitals being built, the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital was a lightning rod before the Pittsburgh Planning Commission and City Council. UPMC’s plans to change Mercy’s master plan to accommodate the hospital drew overflow crowds and hours of opposing testimony, as well as a protest march from UPMC’s headquarters to City Council. A public hearing that lasted more than four hours drew more than 100 speakers, most opposed to the plan.
But Sahel and others involved in the project say the benefits of the hospital — including to the region surrounding where it will be located — has gotten lost in the controversy. The center and Sahel’s body of work comes at a confluence of breakthroughs into how vision and the brain work that has the potential to restore sight, something that was once thought to be the realm of science fiction.
‘We are in your backyard’
Sahel sees the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital as a logical extension and expansion of what he has done in Paris with the Vision Institute, which has grown in 10 years to become a global hub for treatment and research. It’s a convergence of clinical practices, biotherapies, technology, artificial intelligence, all with a humanistic approach that never forgets the patient is at the center of it all.
Sahel has reached out to foundations, investment funds and the corporate sector for one part of the hospital’s strategy, which is building a vibrant ecosystem of vision and rehabilitation companies that grow up in the neighborhood. That’s what happened in Paris, where the institute and Sahel spawned more than 10 companies and 1,000 jobs.
“Our goal here is to duplicate that, to do maybe better, to create new companies, to create jobs,” Sahel said.
The Paris neighborhood around the Vision Institute had been losing population and industry for years. But now the biotech sector has reinvigorated it, said Lawton Snyder, CEO of the Eye & Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh.
“That’s what we see for Pittsburgh,” Snyder said.
Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh, a neighborhood development group, expects a big boost in investment and vibrancy in the neighborhoods around UPMC Mercy once the new hospital opens.
“The development represents an exciting catalytic economic development opportunity and a new benchmark for health and wellness in the region,” said Jeanne McNutt, executive director of Uptown Partners. McNutt and Uptown Partners were one of the handful of groups to show support for the project in August’s City Council public hearing.
McNutt said the hospital is just a start. With it she said will come more development, including retail and green space, along with the promise of even more reinvestment, thanks to the community benefits agreement UPMC brokered with City Council member Daniel LaVelle.
One organization focused on helping those whose eyesight is impaired, the Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, is already in Uptown. When the nonprofit moved there in 2016, it had no clue how important its location would be in just a few years. President Erika Petach can see where the hospital will be located from the boardroom windows, less than two blocks away.
Sahel visited the nonprofit immediately after arriving in Pittsburgh. He immediately saw the potential for collaboration.
“He was excited,” Petach recalled. “He said, ‘We are in your backyard!’”
Sahel joined the nonprofit’s board and believes the two organizations, along with Duquesne University and the City of Pittsburgh, could do groundbreaking things in the years ahead. Sahel has talked to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and others about making Uptown Pittsburgh a friendlier neighborhood for the visually impaired. There are existing technologies as well as other types of innovation in sidewalks and other infrastructure that could be employed, Sahel and Petach said.
“They are things that would make it easy for people to get back and forth between the two organizations,” Petach said.
Creating a new vision: Dr. Jose-Alain Sahel aims to make Pittsburgh a leading center for sight restoration
Dr. Jose-Alain Sahel is the Chairman, Department of Opthamalogy at the University of Pittsburgh’s Eye & Ear Institute.
Joe Wojcik
By Paul J. Gough – Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
Nov 29, 2018, 7:42am EST Updated Nov 29, 2018, 8:51am EST
For Dr. José-Alain Sahel, one of the leading global experts in ophthalmology, time is of the essence when it comes to getting the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital up and running.
Sahel moved to Pittsburgh two years ago to take over the UPMC Eye Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology. Since then, he’s been working tirelessly to make Pittsburgh a groundbreaking center of vision and rehabilitation that will work with the Vision Institute in Paris, which he founded and still directs.
“I don’t see we should wait any day,” Sahel said. “People suffering from vision loss don’t want to wait, and we should never accept any delay when people are waiting for therapy.”
There has already been some delay on the $200 million-plus, 410,000-square-foot facility that will be built on the grounds of UPMC Mercy. It’s the first of three specialty hospitals costing a total of $2 billion that will be built by UPMC over the next five years. And it will not only focus on vision, but also be the center of UPMC’s physical rehabilitation services.
Because it is the first of the three hospitals being built, the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital was a lightning rod before the Pittsburgh Planning Commission and City Council. UPMC’s plans to change Mercy’s master plan to accommodate the hospital drew overflow crowds and hours of opposing testimony, as well as a protest march from UPMC’s headquarters to City Council. A public hearing that lasted more than four hours drew more than 100 speakers, most opposed to the plan.
But Sahel and others involved in the project say the benefits of the hospital — including to the region surrounding where it will be located — has gotten lost in the controversy. The center and Sahel’s body of work comes at a confluence of breakthroughs into how vision and the brain work that has the potential to restore sight, something that was once thought to be the realm of science fiction.
‘We are in your backyard’
Sahel sees the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital as a logical extension and expansion of what he has done in Paris with the Vision Institute, which has grown in 10 years to become a global hub for treatment and research. It’s a convergence of clinical practices, biotherapies, technology, artificial intelligence, all with a humanistic approach that never forgets the patient is at the center of it all.
Sahel has reached out to foundations, investment funds and the corporate sector for one part of the hospital’s strategy, which is building a vibrant ecosystem of vision and rehabilitation companies that grow up in the neighborhood. That’s what happened in Paris, where the institute and Sahel spawned more than 10 companies and 1,000 jobs.
“Our goal here is to duplicate that, to do maybe better, to create new companies, to create jobs,” Sahel said.
The Paris neighborhood around the Vision Institute had been losing population and industry for years. But now the biotech sector has reinvigorated it, said Lawton Snyder, CEO of the Eye & Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh.
“That’s what we see for Pittsburgh,” Snyder said.
Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh, a neighborhood development group, expects a big boost in investment and vibrancy in the neighborhoods around UPMC Mercy once the new hospital opens.
“The development represents an exciting catalytic economic development opportunity and a new benchmark for health and wellness in the region,” said Jeanne McNutt, executive director of Uptown Partners. McNutt and Uptown Partners were one of the handful of groups to show support for the project in August’s City Council public hearing.
McNutt said the hospital is just a start. With it she said will come more development, including retail and green space, along with the promise of even more reinvestment, thanks to the community benefits agreement UPMC brokered with City Council member Daniel LaVelle.
One organization focused on helping those whose eyesight is impaired, the Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, is already in Uptown. When the nonprofit moved there in 2016, it had no clue how important its location would be in just a few years. President Erika Petach can see where the hospital will be located from the boardroom windows, less than two blocks away.
Sahel visited the nonprofit immediately after arriving in Pittsburgh. He immediately saw the potential for collaboration.
“He was excited,” Petach recalled. “He said, ‘We are in your backyard!’”
Sahel joined the nonprofit’s board and believes the two organizations, along with Duquesne University and the City of Pittsburgh, could do groundbreaking things in the years ahead. Sahel has talked to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and others about making Uptown Pittsburgh a friendlier neighborhood for the visually impaired. There are existing technologies as well as other types of innovation in sidewalks and other infrastructure that could be employed, Sahel and Petach said.
“They are things that would make it easy for people to get back and forth between the two organizations,” Petach said.
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