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The
miracles of modern science have bought astounding
knowledge about diseases, but far too few cures.
The American Center for Cures (ACC) aims to open a
new pathway to discovery and focus on the single
most important goal that we have for our loved ones
with an illness: CURES.
Read what
some of our supporters have said about The American
Center For Cures:
"I can
enthusiastically support ACC now. Please let me know
how I can help."
Leland Hartwell, Ph. D.
Nobel Laureate, Medicine and Physiology, 2001
President, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
"I
fully endorse the ACC project and I would be pleased
if you could include my name among those who support
this project."
With Best Wishes
Andrew V. Schally, Ph.D., MDhc (Multi), DSc hc
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977
Distinguished Medical Research Scientist of the
Department of Veterans Affairs
Head of the Endocrine, Polypeptide and Cancer
Institute
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Research Service
(151) Miami, FL and
South Florida VA Foundation for Research and
Education
Distinguished Leonard Miller Professor of Pathology
Professor Division of Hematology/Oncology
and Division of Endocrinology Department of Medicine
Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, FL
"The American Center for Cures will be a
tremendous addition to our nation's valuable
tradition of biomedical research. By
emphasizing translational and applications research
as well as discovery of diagnostic markers, the ACC
will bring the hope of basic science discovery to
the reality of patient care. The mandate and
goal will be to prevent, early diagnose, or cure the
diseases that cause such suffering to humanity.
This effort will promote health diplomacy that will
bring the genius and resources of our nation to
better the health of all Americans."
Secretary Tommy Thompson
Former Secretary, Department of Health and Human
Services, 2001-2005
Former Governor, State of Wisconsin, 1987-2001
"The AMA supports the goals of the [American
Center for Cures] Act to encourage mission-driven
results to enhance our nation's ability to treat
patients' present and future illnesses.
- The American Medical Association
"The Arthritis Foundation supports the passage of
this legislation."
Kevin Brennan
Senior Vice President, Policy and Advocacy,
Arthritis Foundation
"The need for a federal focus on finding cures has
long been a top priority for all of us who seek the
rapid translation of scientific advances into
personal health benefits. With their landmark
legislative proposal, Sen.'s Cochran and Lieberman
have taken a critical step along our path to cures."
S.
Robert Levine MD
Chairman of the Health Priorities Project of the
Progressive Policy Institute.
"Cures for life-altering diseases are within the
combined grasp of science, government, academia and
industry, IF we can provide the right motivation and
management. Proper planning, financial resources and
business management can create the leadership,
harness the energy, translate the knowledge, manage
the collaboration and focus on the goal of getting
these cures to patients. The American Center for
Cures is the vehicle to get this done."
Dr. Bruce E. Bloom
One of the failures of modern American medical
science and research has been the fragmentation of
the effort. While we attract brilliant scientists
and provide them the world’s most modern technology,
the pace of our progress against catastrophic
diseases has been too slow. One reason is that
research is conducted independently at various
centers. Such duplication of effort is uneconomical
and counterproductive.
The American Center for Cures addresses the
shortcomings of these current imperfect efforts and
offers a logical and practical re-thinking of how to
get to the finish line faster. When manpower/talent
from assorted disciplines interact and pool
knowledge and experience, the pace of the learning
accelerates. Further, the ACC is dedicated to moving
the achievements of laboratory science more quickly
to the bedside. No longer should basic science
research stand as a separate field. Such research
should not be conducting strictly for research’s
sake but rather must be immediately translated to
improved patient treatments.
Rather than tolerate energy and resource depletion
from competition between centers without a keen eye
on the prize of curing human illness, we need to
mobilize our most promising talent and then gather
them together with all necessary technical support.
The ACC has the model for a modern-day medical
Manhattan Project.
Robert Kotler, MD, FACS
Clinical Instructor
UCLA Center for the Health Sciences
"As Governors around the country look to transform
our complex health care system, we must seek new
cost-effective solutions that continue to improve
our overall health and productivity," said Michigan
Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. "The American
Center for Cures represents a bi-partisan effort to
devote significant and lasting resources toward an
innovative approach to disease treatment and
management, offering Americans grappling with
chronic and debilitating diseases the lasting gift
of hope."
Governor Jennifer Granholm, Michigan
"Finding cures will improve the health of mankind.
As an example, by simply delaying the onset of
Alzheimer's disease by five years, the health and
productivity of older Americans will be enhanced.
Developing cures will provide American families with
a better quality of health care that can be
sustained over a longer period of time. That
is why I urge the establishment of the American
Center for Cures."
Governor Tom Vilsack, Iowa
"For
far too long, our approach to disease cure has been
biforcated and bereft of true collaboration and
sharing. Academic medicine, big pharma and
entrepreneurial biotech have vastly different and
sometimes even conflicting agendas. However, for
those afflicted with life threatening
diseases--which at some point will be all of us and
our loved ones--getting tenure or expanding profits
matter far less than finding cures. The time is now
to put finding cures above all else and only true
collaboration and sharing will speed that day. I
applaud the establishment of The American Center for
Cures. Its work is urgent and its mission sacred."
Marc Pollick
President and Founder
The Giving Back Fund
www.givingback.org
"The American Center for Cures is a timely and
creative proposal for tackling an urgent national
challenge: the skyrocketing costs of treating and
preventing chronic diseases. The confluence of such
diseases and a graying population not only threatens
to make health care unaffordable, but also
jeopardizes prospects for healthy and successful
aging. The Center would focus the prodigious talents
of our scientific community on specific strategies
to cure disease, saving lives and money over the
long run."
Will Marshall
President, Progressive Policy Institute
"The American Center for Cures is a simple, bold,
breakthrough idea: A can-do country ought to have
the capacity to solve chronic problems, not just
treat them."
Bruce Reed,
President, Democratic Leadership Council
"I certainly support it."
T.
Michael Bolger, J.D.
President and C.E.O.
Medical College of Wisconsin
"I enthusiastically support the American Center for
Cures Act of 2005. It is heartening to see
that our nation's leaders have proposed this
important bi-partisan legislation to improve the
health of all Americans. The American Center
for Cures (ACC) will bring to our patients what they
have been desperately requesting: applying basic
science research to their loved ones, their friends
and themselves. As the Dean of the University
of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, a
pediatrician, a clinical and basic science
researcher, I believe the ACC will continue the
greatest goal of medicine, namely to prevent,
diagnose early and cure diseases."
Phillip M. Farrell, M.D.,Ph.D.
Robert Turell Professor in Medical Leadership
Former Dean, University of Wisconsin School of
Medicine and Public Health
Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs
"I believe the American Center for Cures (ACC) is a
wonderful effort that focuses physicians and
scientists on bringing the discoveries of the
laboratory to the patient. The lives of many
Americans will be improved by having the ACC bring
to bear new resources in the fight against chronic
neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and other
neurodegenerative disorders. I
enthusiastically support the American Center for
Cures and hope that my colleagues in biomedical
research will join me."
Stanley Prusiner, M. D.
Nobel Laureate, Medicine and Physiology, 2001
University of California, San Francisco
"The proposed ACC offers a blend of existing federal
activities in health research with several new
initiatives, all aimed at speeding the move from
discovery to products that help human health.
The proposal has multiple components including
strengthening existing NIH authorities in support of
small business. When enacted and in operation
the results of this new focused activity
should be very visible with improvements to the
public health that would not be possible without
this new money with mandates on how it is spent."
Robert Day, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Emeritus Professor and Dean, University of
Washington School of Public Health and Community
Medicine
Emeritus Professor and Director, Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, Member, Public Health
Sciences
Member: National Cancer Advisory Board,
National Cancer Policy Board, Former President of
the Association of Schools of Public Health
Former President of the American Association of
Cancer Institutes
"The establishment of an American Center for Cures
with its emphasis, prominence and integration into
the rest of the United States organization of health
care related ventures would represent an enormous
step forward. The focus of the Center on translation
of basic science initiatives to the clinical arena
will benefit those whose support has taken us to the
present date. I applaud the initiative."
Fritz H Bach, M.D.
Lewis Thomas Distinguished Professor
Harvard Medical School.
"Medical discoveries over the past century have
greatly increased the quality and quantity of human
life. New insights into biology will make even
more advances possible. The American Center
for Cures will make the translation of biological
discoveries to the patient occur not only faster but
much more likely to happen. It is hard to imagine
another investment that would extend the quality and
quantity of life than fully funding the American
Center for Cures."
James O. Armitage, M. D.
Joe Shapiro
Professor of Medicine
University
of Nebraska College of Medicine
Nebraska
Medical Center
Omaha, NE
68198
2000-2003
Dean, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska
College of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska
2005-present
Member, International Scientific Advisory Board, The
French Institut National du Cancer
2000-present
Member, National Cancer Advisory Board
2000-01
President, American Society for Blood and Marrow
Transplantation
1997-02
Board of Directors, American Board of Internal
Medicine
1996-97
President, American Society of Clinical Oncology
(ASCO)
Association of American
Physicians
Royal College of Physicians,
Edinburgh
"This is a very timely and well thought out program
for advancing the human research enterprise
nationally. This is a critical time for moving
the rapidly accumulating scientific database to
healthcare benefits for the public. The
centers of care will seek to overcome many of the
roadblocks and provide a pathway to success. I
support these efforts."
Ralph Freedman, M.D.
Professor of
Gynecology
M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center
"I am pleased to support the American Center for
Cures (ACC) proposed legislation that you introduced
to the United Sates Senate on Wednesday, December 7.
This legislation is critical and in the translation
of advances in fundamental biomedical science to
improvements in the care of people. Please let
me know if I can help make this dream a reality."
Lee Goldman, MD, MPH
Columbia Unversity College of Physicians and
Surgeons
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical
Sciences and Dean of the Faculties of Health
Sciences and Medicine.
New York, New York
"I enthusiastically support The American Center for
Cures (ACC) Senate legislation. The ACC will
focus our nation's scientists and doctors on
applying basic scientific discoveries to help the
patient. This critical approach to research
will not only help our friends and loved ones with
their health, it will be the 21st Century American
approach to solving the health care financial
crisis. By eliminating or reducing certain
diseases for all Americans, the looming federal and
state Medicare and Medicaid financial tsunami will
be markedly reduced. There is no time to lose.
I urge the immediate passage of the ACC
legislation."
Stephen Gleason, D. O., Ph.D.
(deceased)
Former CEO Mercy Clinics
Former VP Medical Operations for Catholic Health
Initiatives
Former White House advisor
Former chief of staff, Governor Tom Vilsack
Former Presidential Representative to the World
Health Organization
Assistant Professor, Mayo Graduate School of
Medicine
"The American Center for Cures will be the engine
that brings basic science discoveries and apply them
to the patient. It has been said that women
and minorities are not dying from the lack of
research; they are dying from the lack of research
being applied to them. The ACC will focus the
talent of the greatest scientists and clinicians for
one singular purpose: to cure, prevent, or diagnose
earlier diseases that afflict so many in the world.
As a mother, nurse, researcher, and educator, I
believe that the ACC will bring better health to all
of us. The time is now...let us not waste
another moment."
Sandra Underwood, RN, PhD
University
of Wisconsin School of Nursing
"I am very supportive of the American Center for
Cures."
Samir Z. Abu-Ghazaleh, M. D.
Gynecologic
Oncologist
Avera Cancer Institute
"I believe this is a great idea and will help in any
way possible."
Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H.
Associate
Professor
Deputy
Director, Chronic Disease Prevention & Control
Research
Center
Baylor
College of Medicine
"I support the idea."
Jean DeKernion, M. D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Urology
Director, Jonsson Cancer Center
UCLA Medical Center CHS 66-143 UR 19
"The American Center for Cures is a remarkable idea
that will be the bridge between the promise of
scientific opportunities and the reality of our
nation's health needs – to deliver cures.
Americans deserve a center that is totally dedicated
to finding cures for our most devastating and
debilitating chronic diseases. The ACC is the
natural extension of the doubling of the NIH budget.
Now we must have as a top national priority an
accountable, mission-driven Center for Cures to
rapidly identify "cure opportunities" already
created by federal, academic and private research
laboratories and proactively accelerate and rapidly
translate these opportunities into real cures.
In an era expanding needs, exploding knowledge of
the biomedical sciences, and demands of the public
to have the knowledge applied to their loved ones'
ailments, the American Center for Cures offers new
hope and dynamic reality to Americans. The
American Center for Cures is the opportunity to
commit the American genius, resources, and ethic to
a greater cause in a "moonshot" approach to
diseases."
Richard J. Boxer, M. D.
Professor of Clinical Urology, University of
Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Clinical
Professor, Health Policy, Medical College of
Wisconsin
Clinical Professor, Family and Community Medicine,
Medical College of Wisconsin
Clinical Professor, Surgery/Urology, University of
Wisconsin-Madison
"Having reviewed the material you so kindly sent me,
I want to applaud this pioneering, entrepreneurial
approach which will undoubtedly accelerate the
process by which we discover and implement cures for
diseases and improve and enrich the quality of life
of tens of millions of Americans. I hope that
this bold solutions-oriented approach will have
overwhelmingly bi-partisan support in Congress and
that it will be signed into law by the President at
the earliest possible moment."
Steve Grossman
Former
Chair, Democratic National Committee
C.E.O. Massachusetts Envelope Company
Boston, MA
"The American Center for Cures is the best new idea
in Washington DC in a generation. It is timely,
creative and compelling."
Joe Andrew
Former
Chair, Democratic National Committee
Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal, LLP
Washington, DC
"The combination of NIH and industry-supported
research, combined with venture capital, has
been very successful in bringing new drugs based on
fundamental biological discoveries into commercial
reality. In areas that combine fundamental
biology and physical science and
engineering—biomedical devices, analytical, genomic,
and diagnostic tools, bioinformation systems, tissue
engineering—the current system works substantially
less well."
George Whitesides, Ph.D.
Professor of
Chemistry Harvard Medical School, (given in 2004)
"The concept of the new
institute is exciting."
Arthur W. Nienhuis, M.D.
Director,
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (given in 2004)
"The concept and its underlying philosophy are
right on target. We need to open cancer research in
prevention, early diagnosis, and cure to scientists
in diverse fields that include physicists, chemists,
computer scientists and mathematicians."
Frederick P. Li, M.D.
Director,
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Control
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (given in 2004)
"The American Center for Cures will be
extraordinarily important for all Americans, and
indeed all humanity. The new Center will
combine scientific disciplines that have previously
not been brought to bear upon biomedical problems.
This is a unique and desperately needed approach
which will break through the impasse and finally bring the
formidable power of all science to focus and solve
the diseases that plague the world.
The American Center for Cures has been designed to
bring accountability and responsibility for ultimate
cures. Its success will be measured by cures
and cures alone. As a father, husband, entrepreneur,
and one who has seen too much suffering, I believe
it is incumbent upon us to take a bold approach to
biomedical research that will make our children and
future generations free of the diseases that have
afflicted us and our ancestors. Let our descendents
look back at our generation and say, 'They reached
for the stars, and found they were capable of
conquering old paradigms, fears, and diseases.'"
Lou Weisbach
C.E.O.
Stadium Capital Associates
Founder, HA-LO Industries, Inc.
"Oscar Wilde once wrote, 'Morality, like art, begins
with a line being drawn someplace.'
With
tremendous suffering and disease so prevalent in our
country, the American Center for Cures' (ACC)
proposed legislation being introduced by Senators
Lieberman and Cochran draws a line in the sand for
health and extending the lifetime of every
individual. From a religious point of view,
this certainly responds to the notion that we are
identified with life affirmation.
I heartily endorse this legislation."
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs
Temple Kol
Tikvah
Woodland Hills, CA
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor,
Tikkun Magazine
Rabbi, Beyt Tikkun Synagogue
San
Francisco, California
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