UF, UF HEALTH ANNOUNCE GIFT AND NEW $75 MILLION INITIATIVE TO EXPAND NORMAN FIXEL INSTITUTE
Investment will spur growth in a number of important areas
The University of Florida and UF Health announced in September an additional $25 million gift from the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation aimed at improving the lives of patients across the globe through the continued expansion of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health. The new investment will spur growth in the areas of national and international telemedicine, Alzheimer’s disease clinical research, mental health, traumatic brain injury and ALS, and will help cultivate the next generation of expert researchers tackling these challenging diseases.
The gift will be part of a new $75 million initiative that will combine contributions from UF, UF Health and additional private donors to build on the momentum following the institute’s founding just two years ago.
The Fixel Foundation previously gifted more than $25 million from 2017 to 2019 to establish the Norman Fixel Institute and to help build the UF Health Neuromedicine – Williston Road facility that houses UF Health’s neuromedicine specialty practice and a neurotechnology laboratory. The institute was named in honor of Lee Fixel’s father, Norman, who graduated from UF with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1975. Lauren Fixel is also a UF graduate, with a 2007 bachelor’s degree in journalism.
“This new $75 million fundraising campaign will build upon previous momentum and further expand the Norman Fixel Institute into a one-of-a-kind campus that will become a destination for patients and families seeking the best possible care and the latest research advances for debilitating neurological diseases,” said Lee Fixel. “With new investments in telemedicine, patients from around the world will be able to access world-class medical doctors at UF for first or second opinions for any neurodegenerative disease.”
In addition to supporting the recruitment of new clinicians and researchers, the new Fixel gift will provide funds to physically expand the institute’s footprint, creating a dedicated campus designed to enhance the patient experience. The upgraded campus will co-locate renowned scholars in Alzheimer’s disease clinical research and geriatric psychiatry and add distinguished national and international telemedicine clinician-researchers as well as a nutritionist and two biomarker collection coordinators. In addition, it will add MRI and neurotechnology research space, among expansion in other areas, and will feature a central park with eating establishments and other amenities for patients.
“This gift from Lauren and Lee Fixel will change lives and offer patients unprecedented access to care and research advances,” said Kent Fuchs, UF President. “To have a freestanding campus dedicated solely to neurological diseases is unique, and this gift will take an already renowned institute to the next level.”
The Fixel Foundation’s latest investment complements UF’s ongoing artificial intelligence initiative. UF and UF Health will provide funds to help support the recruitment of experts in neurotechnology as part of the university’s initiative to become a national leader in the application of AI, along with experts in Alzheimer’s and geriatric psychiatry.
“With the 2019 Fixel gift, we were able to quickly recruit some of the world’s top researchers in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases — diseases that disrupt the lives of millions of Americans and will only continue to affect more and more patients and families as our population ages,” said David R. Nelson, M.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. “Now, thanks to the incredible generosity of the Fixel family, we will be able to seize the momentum from the previous gift and pursue new ways to treat some of humankind’s most intractable disorders.”
Included in the Fixels’ gift will also be funds to support up-and-coming researchers. “With their new gift, Lauren and Lee Fixel have recognized the importance of investing in the education, training and mentoring of the next generation of investigators and clinician-scientists whose future contributions could revolutionize the way we treat neurodegenerative diseases,” said Colleen G. Koch, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., dean of the UF College of Medicine.
The institute has seen vibrant growth under the vision and leadership of Michael Okun, M.D., and Kelly Foote, M.D., world experts in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and other neurological disorders as well as the use of deep brain stimulation. What they started as UF’s Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration in 2002 has grown from two faculty members to over 100. It has transformed from a program without a home to a single floor of a building to now a freestanding institute, where patients with neurological diseases can see specialists of diverse disciplines all in one location: physicians who specialize in movement disorders, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, psychologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech and swallowing specialists, nutritionists, social workers and genetic counselors.
In describing the institute’s mission, Okun, the institute’s executive director and chair of neurology at UF, said, “The patient is the sun, and the health care team should orbit around the patient’s needs. This has been our unwavering philosophy from the day we joined the faculty.”
Foote, the institute’s co-director and a professor of neurosurgery in the Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery at UF, said the multidisciplinary nature of the institute allows patients to see all their providers on the same visit and facilitates collaboration among care teams, who work together in person.
“This care model helps us provide the best possible treatments to our patients with the least amount of headache and hassle,” Foote said. “Not only that, but working together on multidisciplinary research studies helps us continue to refine and develop treatments toward our overarching goal: improving quality of life for our patients and changing lives. This new gift from the Fixel family helps us immeasurably toward achieving that goal.”
The Norman Fixel Institute is a cornerstone of UF’s aspiration to help create history’s healthiest generation through precision health, the elimination of health disparities and the advancement of therapies related to the brain and mental health.