Business look for more collaborations just like this one. It’s a stressful time, but it brings fresh thinking.” Collaborations between NSHE institutions and the Ruvo Center have already begun. This fall, UNLV’s gerontology program and its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute teamed up with the Ruvo Center to present a series of workshops for caregivers who aid family members with memory disorders. And the center’s researchers are collaborating with UNLV kinesiology experts on how to improve balance in Parkinson’s patients. Trevisan envisions more formal sharing of intellectual resources with the Ruvo Center, just as NSHE has been developing with the four-yearold Nevada Cancer Institute—faculty fellowships, practicum experiences for medical school and nursing students, and joint research grants. Such partnerships are a boon to faculty and student recruitment efforts, he says, and to growing research programs. “The creation of new knowledge raises the level of care; it elevates the discourse,” Trevisan says. “Patients get access to new treatments before the rest of the world. Students are going to be taught by someone who wrote the book.”
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While Cleveland Clinic officials decide how to expand, the Ruvo Center for Brain Health is ramping up its services. It began accepting patients in July and now has a staff of 13, including two neurologists, a psychologist and three research coordinators. The center expects to hire two new physician-scientists next year and will expand service delivery to 8,000 patient visits per year thereafter. Patients have greater access to new therapies—the clinic is currently enrolling patients in four drug trials—as well as studies of nonmedical interventions such as exercise therapy. And doctors here can tap into the Cleveland Clinic’s cadre of brain-imaging specialists in Ohio. “What really excites me is that this is not just a medical enterprise,” Trevisan says. “It’s much more comprehensive, involving care providers from all different areas.” The Ruvo Center is working on a number of diseases not usually studied together, Bernick says. “Generally in an academic center your Parkinson’s and 18 D e s e r t C o m p a n i o n N O V E M B E R - D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9