Sault to market health-care delivery model.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie to become a version of Mayo Clinic

SAULT STE. MARIE -Dave Murray knows an opportunity when he sees one.

The chief executive officer of the Group Health Centre (GHC) says health care should be the new economic engine for Sault Ste. Marie and he envisions his institution's model of health-care delivery being duplicated across Canada.

While politicians fret over the North's aging demographic, Murray says there are many homegrown advantages that the city should develop to deliver better health care to the community, to economically grow the sector and put more people to work with good-paying jobs.

"An aging population can actually be an economic driver," Murray says.

If Rochester, Minn. can be the home for the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, why not a similar version in Sault Ste. Marie?

That is one of the many ideas Murray is putting forward to the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. with the hope of building public and private partnerships to grow health care in the community.

"Bill Gates decided to live in Redmond, Washington because he liked it out on the West Coast," says Murray. "Today, 7,800 people are employed in the software business in Seattle-Redmond with an average salary of $288,000 (US) and those people generate $2.5 billion for that local economy."

Already health care in the Sault generates $350 million locally, with an average of $3,174 being spent on a per capita basis in public and private funds annually.

Murray believes his nationally acclaimed clinic, along with the city's two world-class government research labs, could be a springboard toward establishing the Sault as a national centre for research, private referrals, health education opportunities and tele-health opportunities.

Among his ideas include becoming a national destination for diagnostic and fitness assessments for corporate clients or possibly franchising out the Group Health Centre community-based concept across Canada.

Recently Qualicum Beach, a British Columbia health-care institution, inquired about the centre, says Murray.

Other possibilities include adding a call centre component with an appointment-booking call centre and medical dictation services offered to other clinics.

There are options to consider consulting work and training for other facilities, as well as pursue health care and research opportunities with the Northern Ontario Medical School and Sault College.

With the Group Health Centre conducting about $2 million worth of clinical and primary care research annually, Murray...