News Seton Healthcare Family Receives $1 Million Cain Foundation Grant to Launch Clinical Research Center

Research will increase access to care, make cutting-edge therapies available locally

AUSTIN, Texas - (Oct. 20, 2011) -The Seton Fund has received a $1 million seed grant from the Austin-based Cain Foundation to endow the executive director position at the new Seton/University of Texas Southwestern Center for Clinical Investigation.

Seton Healthcare Family, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and The University of Texas System, working under a historic 2009 affiliation agreement, are enhancing Austin's medical education and research infrastructure with expanded residency programs and research initiatives. The Seton/UTSW Center for Clinical Investigation will focus on translational research to expand and accelerate the adoption of evidence-based best practice into actual clinical practice.

"The Cain Foundation has been involved in medical research for many years. We are pleased to provide start-up funding for the executive director position at the Seton/UTSW Center for Clinical Investigation," said Frank Denius, president of the Cain Foundation.

In thanking the Cain Foundation, Charles J. Barnett, FACHE, president/CEO of the Seton Healthcare Family, said the gift will be invaluable in advancing Seton's mission "to provide quality health care to those we serve, with a special concern for the poor and the vulnerable." The mission challenges caregivers to seek out more effective and affordable ways to improve the health of Central Texans.

"The Seton/UTSW Center for Clinical Investigation is a critical part of our efforts to increase access to care, including cutting edge therapies that otherwise are only available to those with the means to travel out of our region," he added. "The generous gift from the Cain Foundation will help ensure that we have as our executive director the kind of talented and visionary individual to lead our efforts."

"Once again, the Cain Foundation has generously stepped in to support significant advancements in health research and care," UT Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, MD said. "This gift will significantly increase our medical research capacity in Austin, which goes hand-in-glove with expanded medical education here. It will accelerate our ability to recruit world-class researcher clinicians. This will have a wonderful impact on Seton, UT and Austin, where new discoveries will be launched, bringing great medical benefits to patients and economic benefit to our city and surrounding counties."

"For more than two decades, the Cain Foundation has played a leadership role in funding breakthrough research initiatives at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas," added UT Southwestern President Dan Podolsky. "This latest act of generosity by Frank and Charmaine Denius and the Cain Foundation is an affirmation that the extraordinary new partnership between UT Southwestern and Seton will be a driving force in new discoveries that will translate to better patient care in the region."

For the past several years, Seton has invested heavily to bring new medical education and clinical research to Central Texas, building on a rich history of clinician training and practice firsts at University Medical Center Brackenridge, a teaching hospital. The Seton/UTSW Center for Clinical Investigation is expected to employ as many as 20 full-time scholars over the next five years. The Center will be the first clinical translational research institute for adult medicine in Central Texas, applying basic discoveries to direct patient care.

Expanding academic medicine is one of the ways Seton is addressing the region's growing shortage of highly-trained physicians. The Seton/UTSW Center for Clinical Investigation will help attract top-flight medical and scientific talent to Central Texas and contribute to the body of research that will ultimately translate into better treatments, technologies and medicines. The Center will also serve as a catalyst for economic development by bringing together talented physicians, scientists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to build the region's life sciences sector.