Michael Hecht President & CEO, Greater New Orleans, Inc.
According to the latest economic intelligence dashboard from the Committee of 100, the healthcare sector in Louisiana has added nearly 15,000 jobs over the past five years, making it the fastest-growing industry in the state. Highlights include:
Earlier this year, Xavier University, one of the top-ranked HBCU’s in America, and Ochsner Health, Louisiana’s largest private employer, announced that they are partnering to form a new medical school, the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine (XOCOM). XOCOM will be the only HBCU medical school in the Gulf South, and just the fifth one nationally; the last HBCU medical school to open was Morehouse in 1975.
Also recently, a partnership between LCMC Health and Tulane University created a formal link between one of Louisiana’s largest healthcare systems and the state’s only existing private medical school. Together, the two organizations will advance academic medicine to enhance the care provided to patients, increase investment in research, and expand opportunities to train the next generation of healthcare professionals.
And this weekend, LSU Health Shreveport celebrated its first graduation ceremony in the school’s new $79 million Center for Medical Education. The new facility was created to enhance the educational experience and interdisciplinary collaboration for students and faculty.
Driving healthcare innovation, last month Ochsner Ventures teamed up with Louisiana Economic Development to launch the Ochsner Louisiana Innovation Fund, which was created with funds from the U.S. Treasury’s SSBCI 2.0 Program. The duo came together to back early-stage health startups with cutting-edge solutions and has already invested in a promising healthcare company, Nest Health.
For place-based development, plans are moving ahead for the BioDistrict New Orleans, which covers hundreds of acres of land that includes the VA Hospital, University Medical Center and the former Charity Hospital building. The initiative has secured up to $70 million in local support over the next 18 years to help foster the growth of the city’s biosciences industry and has already announced that the aforementioned Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will be located in the district.
Here at GNO, Inc., we’ve assembled a group of 12 healthcare providers, nonprofit organizations, startups, and universities to foster the development of Greater New Orleans as a destination for Neurological Research and Care, to improve lives and create jobs. Called NeuroNOLA, the initiative is envisioning New Orleans as the premier destination for research and care related to diseases of aging and the nervous system and is working with aligned groups like Team Gleason and the Split-Second Foundation.
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