IRVINE – Orange County philanthropists Susan and Henry Samueli will donate $200 million to UC Irvine, one of the largest gifts ever to any public university, to create a college that educates medical students in holistic practices as well as traditional ones and treat patients with a wide-ranging perspective.
The gift will create the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, which UCI says will be the first facility on a university campus to incorporate integrative health research, teaching and patient care across its schools and programs.
The donation, announced Monday, ties with three other gifts as the seventh-largest ever to an American public university, UCI officials said.
Integrative medicine aims to treat the mind, body and spirit of the patient and not just the disease. It combines Western medicine with alternative or complementary treatments, such as acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine and yoga to prevent illnesses as well as react to them.
Henry Samueli credits his wife for steering his family long ago toward health care that includes alternative medicine.
“Susan has completely converted me into an advocate for integrative health,” he said. “When I feel a cold or flu coming on, rather than run to the doctor, I run to Susan to figure out which homeopathic remedy or Chinese herb I should be taking.”
A focus of the couple’s foundation has been researching whether such complementary practices work, and the evidence shows they do, he said.
“So we felt the time was right to look at ways to take Susan’s Center for Integrative Medicine to the next level,” he told the crowd.
Doctors and others from different disciplines would be taught to work together to help patients.
In 2001, the Samueli Foundation donated $5.7 million to establish that center – a passion of Susan Samueli, who believes that conventional medicine is best when supplemented with alternative medicine.
Health care approached in a holistic manner, she said, can treat and even prevent chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.
“Henry and I are very excited that a major university-based academic health center has the vision to adopt an integrative health philosophy across its entire enterprise,” she told a near-capacity crowd of UCI academics, college health professionals and elected officials who gave the couple a standing ovation during the announcement at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.
The college will incorporate the existing Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, which will become the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. The newly named college also will eventually encompass UCI’s School of Medicine, the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, a school of pharmacy and a school of population health.
Cardiologist Shaista Malik, director of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, said patients are determined to change their lifestyles and take medications immediately after they suffer illnesses such as heart attacks. But many fail to maintain that new lifestyle after several months.
With integrated medicine, she can send them, for example, to mindfulness classes where they learn to cope with stress and change behavior.
“Most of the health is what happens outside the medical center or outside the doctor’s office,” Malik said. “Health is not just a procedure or medication. It’s self-care. So much of who’s healthy depends on who’s able to care for themselves.”
The newly shaped college will practice integrated medicine across the board in teaching and research for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and more.
“I think it’s fair to say that this has never been done before,” said Howard Federoff, vice chancellor of health affairs at UCI. “If you think about where we want to go, eventually this will be health care.”
The donation has been in the planning for about a year, said Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom. He and his wife, owners of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team, are long-time donors to UCI and other entities.
Among the institutions that carry their name is the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering & Applied Science as well as a high school in Santa Ana – the Samueli Academy, which has as one of its focuses aiding foster children.
At UCI, the family’s foundation previously donated more than $70 million, including $30 million earlier this year to help build a state-of-the-art science and engineering building at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman said the newly shaped college will “educate the next generation of integrative health-sciences professionals to transcend current boundaries … with an increased focus on lifestyle, prevention, wellness, and optimal health … focusing on the whole person.”
The donation includes $50 million toward construction of a facility to house the college in an empty lot near Bison and California avenues, and another $5 million for state-of-the-art technology and labs. The university plans to locate affiliated health programs in adjacent buildings.
“This brings a lot of opportunities for students, like bigger facilities,” said Jackline Muthoka, 30, a second-year student at UCI School of Medicine. “The school will look much much nicer.”
Another $145 million will create an endowment to, among other things, to pay for up to 15 faculty chairs in the medicine, nursing, pharmacy and population health disciplines and provide research projects and scholarships and fellowships.
The university and the Samuelis have an agreement in place spelling out exactly how the money will be spent, UCI spokesman Tom Vasich said. The university’s senior leadership will oversee the project to ensure the agreement is followed, Vasich said.
The Samuelis will serve as advisers to the college.
Vasich said there’s no timeline yet for the construction of the new facility.
“The Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences will … allow UCI to become a national model for enhancing individual and population health,” Chancellor Gillman said.
LARGEST PUBLIC UNIVERSITY DONATIONS
1. $500 million to UC San Francisco in 2017 from the Helen Diller Foundation
2. $500 million to the University of Oregon from Penny and Phil Knight in 2016
3. $300 million to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation in 2002
4. $279 million to the University of Washington from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2017
5. $232 million to the University of Texas at Austin from John A. (Jack) Jackson in 2002
6. $210 million to the University of Washington from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2016
7. $200 million to UCI from Susan and Henry Samueli in 2017
7. $200 million to UCLA from the Lincy Foundation in 2011
7. $200 million to the UCLA School of Medicine from David Geffen in 2002
7. $200 million to UC Santa Barbara from Charles T. Munger in 2016
7. $200 million to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor from Stephen M. Ross in 2013
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
