Shaping Research Frontiers: The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, 1980-2005 Robynne Rogers Healey, PhD Carolee Pollock, PhD Julian Martin, PhD ©2005 Acknowledgements This project could not have been completed without the assistance of a great many people who deserve thanks. Primary sources form the basis of the historian’s craft; those who keep and care for them play a key role in the stories historians can tell. Thanks go first to those who provided us access to the documents. Kathleen Thurber, Director of Communications at AHFMR, provided access to the Foundation’s archival materials and workspace and graciously answered many questions. Liza Chan, the Foundation’s librarian, was also helpful. Diana Barry, Secretary to the President, and Marj Weber, Executive Assistant to the President, made the research experience at AHFMR very pleasant. They tolerated our presence in the presidential suite, answered numerous questions, retrieved documents that we could not find, supplied lists of names, and remained cheerful the entire time! Raymond Frogner at the University of Alberta Archives and Lisa Atkinson at the University of Calgary Archives helped us find documents that told the “other side” of the Foundation story. Very importantly for this project, a number of very busy people generously gave of their time to be interviewed. These interviews were absolutely crucial to our understanding of the documents and told us much more than they ever could. We appreciate the frankness with which these people approached the interview process. Thanks go to: Dr. Judy Birdsell, Dr. Ann Casebeer, Dr. John Colter, Sandy Doze, Dr. Brad Hagen, Dr. Rob Hayward, Sarah Hayward, Lou Hyndman, Cheryl Katterhagen, Dr. Kevin Keough, Dr. Donna Manca, Sharon Matthias, Dr. Ernie McCoy, Dr. Kerrie Pain, Terrie Pawsey, Sharon (Kalinka) Read, Dr. Eldon Smith, Dr. Matthew Spence, Dr. Lloyd Sutherland, Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, Dr. Mamoru “Mo” Watanabe, Marj Weber, Brenda Wilson, Dr. Doug Wilson, and Judy Wry. Finally, we would like to thank the Foundation for allowing us to participate in this exciting project. We have enjoyed it immensely. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Vision and Design 8 Chapter Two: The Early Years, 1980-1982 51 Chapter Three: Growth and Expansion, 1983-1990 91 Chapter Four: Crisis: A Product of Success, 1984-1992 150 Chapter Five: Revisioning and Reorganizing: Strategic Planning and Beyond, 1988-1992 182 Chapter Six: Diversification and Expansion, 1992-2005 205 Conclusion 247 Introduction In 1980, Bill 62—the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Act—received Royal assent, creating an endowed foundation for medical research in the Province of Alberta. Premier Peter Lougheed had dreamed of such an endowed foundation for some years. In 1976 his government had created the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust Fund to set aside one third of the province’s revenue from royalties on oil and natural gas for the future. Since the price of oil and natural gas was at an all-time high in the 1970s, billions of dollars of surplus revenue were generated in short order. This wealth presented the government with both a challenge and an opportunity. There was plenty of money, but what should be done with it? How could Alberta’s revenues best be invested? Lougheed was determined that Alberta’s non-renewable resource wealth should provide a long-term legacy, or heritage, for future Albertans. That heritage had to include economic diversification. “As a resource-producing area,” he recalled, “we wanted to balance, by way of diversification, a knowledge-based economy.”1 Faced with the question of how to invest the province’s surplus billions, and presented with a plan from the Deans of Medicine at the universities of Alberta and Calgary, Lougheed’s cabinet reached a consensus to establish an endowment fund for medical research.2 The work of creating the Foundation, once the idea had been conceived, was immense. It fell to the capable hands of John E. “Jack” Bradley who worked in concert with Lougheed 1 Peter Lougheed Interview video clip, “Canadian Medical Hall of Fame—Laureates,” (09 December 2004). <http://cdnmedhall.ca/laureates/?laur_id=53>, (09 December 2004). 2 Peter Lougheed, “The Economic Impact of Research in Canada,” 1997 Killam Lecture, p. 16, <http://www.killamtrusts.ca/englihs/lectures.php>, (09 May 2005). 1 to make the dream a reality. Lougheed’s dream was realized when AHFMR began operations in 1980. Endowed with $300 million to “support a balanced long-term program of medical research based in Alberta directed to the discovery of new knowledge and the application of that knowledge to improve health and the quality of health services in Alberta,”3 the Foundation, in its twenty-five year history, has reshaped Alberta’s research frontiers. It is, as one International Board of Review (IBR) commented, an Alberta success story. The Foundation has had “an enormous impact on the quality of health research and care for Albertans. It has attracted [researchers] who have positioned the province and its medical schools and universities at the leading edge of health research.”4 Considering its lengthy list of accomplishments, it is difficult to disagree with the assessment of the most recent international reviewers that “for the initial investment of a $300 million endowment, the government and people of Alberta have certainly had their money’s worth.”5 Peter Lougheed, justifiably proud, claims that he never regretted his decision to create the Foundation.6 Indeed, the fact that “Alberta is a significant player at the ‘leading edge’ of health research, particularly of biomedical research, is attributable in very substantial measure to AHFMR and its prescient and far-sighted founders.”7 The contribution of Peter Lougheed and Jack Bradley to medical history in Canada through the creation of AHFMR was recognized formally in 2001 when both 3 Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Act, Chapter A-21, <www.qp.gov.ab.ca/documents/acts/A21.cfm>, (30 December 2004). 4 Report of the Third International Board of Review: A review of the operation of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research for the period 1991-1997, p. 10 5 Fourth International Board of Review, June 2004: A Review of the Operation of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research for the period 1998-2004, p. 18. 6 Lougheed, “The Economic Impact of Research in Canada,” p. 17. 7 IBR, June 2004, p. 17. 2 men were inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.8 Speaking in honour of their induction, Matthew Spence, the Foundation’s second president, commented on the importance of Lougheed’s and Bradley’s legacy: They took the germ of an idea and stuck with it and did the very careful groundwork that resulted in the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research which [has been] characterized as a national treasure, a treasure for all Canadians, indeed people throughout the world. … [T]hey started this unique organization going—the development of a brain trust which is of benefit to all mankind.9 Bradley himself had fond memories of his efforts alongside Lougheed in setting up the Foundation, remarking that “it was a pretty fertile field and you see what it’s done—it’s boomed.”10 The striking change in Alberta’s research landscape over the past twenty-five years is attributable to the existence of the Foundation and the transformed attitudes it has wrought among medical researchers of all stripes. When AHFMR was established in 1980, medical research was done in university laboratories by scientists and their graduate students. In 2005, it still is. However, today medical research is also done in community settings by social scientists and health care investigators. AHFMR has programs to support both. The broad spectrum of inquiry that comes under the umbrella of medical research that AHFMR funds has resulted in successful collaborative multi-disciplinary efforts that address curiosity-driven research from cell biology to preventative care. 8 In 1986, Lougheed became a Companion of the Order of Canada in recognition for his contribution to the creation of the Foundation. 9 Matthew Spence Interview video clip, “Canadian Medical Hall of Fame—Laureates,” <http://cdnmedhall.ca/laureates/?laur_id=53>, (09 December 2004). 10 Jack Bradley Interview video clip, “Canadian Medical Hall of Fame—Laureates,” <http://cdnmedhall.ca/laureates/?laur_id=53>, (09 December 2004). 3 Twenty-five years after it was launched, Premier Ralph Klein’s government recognized the significance of AHFMR’s contributions to provincial research capacity, excellent medical research and instruction, and economic diversification by providing a substantial supplement to the original endowment. Over its history, the Foundation has experienced both financial expansion and decline in accordance with the uneven economic cycle in Alberta. Twice, in the early 1990s and the early 2000s, it weathered particularly difficult storms. Even though the original endowment of $300 million had, at one time, reached $1.2 billion, the negative markets in 2002-03 had a devastating effect. By 31 March 2004 the value of the endowment had dropped to $826 million.11 The Foundation’s administration and Board of Trustees worried that, without an increase to the endowment, the decline in its purchasing power would require significant program restrictions.12 The assessment of the 2004 IBR that, “without additional funds, cuts to existing programs will be essential,” only expressed publicly the challenges the trustees had already confronted.13 The announcement, in January 2005, that the Foundation would be receiving $500 million over three years beginning in the 2005-06 fiscal year was a great relief.14 The recent supplement brought the value of the endowment close to $1.4 billion, and “will allow the Foundation to continue and enhance its programs of funding people and activities 11 “Management and Discussion Analysis,” 2004 Annual Report.