Dr. Katherine Tuttle, medical and scientific director of Providence Medical Research Center here, says the center is on its way to becoming a full-fledged research institute, a path she says will help Spokane attract sought-after medical and research talent and will help Sacred Heart Medical Center emerge as a training hospital.


What will make Providence Medical Research a research institute within the next decade is the ability to conduct whats called translational research, Tuttle says. Translational research connects basic research with clinical trials in a continuum, from cellular research on disease to trials in which medications are used on animals to clinical trials on humans, Tuttle says. Such a continuum can spark additional basic research, creating a rich research environment, she says.


Currently, the center is involved in about 300 different research studies, ranging from sleep studies to orthopedic studies. Most of those are clinical studies, a few involve basic research, and some are considered humanitarian studies of specialized therapies because they address less common diseases.


Tuttle says she believes the center is the largest research operation in the Seattle-based nonprofit Providence Health & Services Network, which operates 26 hospitals, more than 35 nonacute-care facilities, physicians clinics, and other operations in five Pacific Northwest states. Sacred Heart is among the hospitals under that umbrella.


Tuttle already is participating in translational research, conducted in part at the University of Washington, where she also is a full professor. That research is in a field called proteomics, which seeks new ways to measure the results of clinical research.


She says most measures of how successful a treatment is involve how many patients die after receiving a treatment or how long patients live after they receive a treatment.


That means with chronic diseases, it can be many years before a trial can be evaluated fully, she says. Proteomics instead seeks to identify disease-specific biological markers on cells that can be measured before and after a treatment to determine the treatments effectiveness.


Tuttle says shes helping to identify disease biomarkers in the research shes involved with at UW, where a full continuum of research, including animal trials, can be done. The Spokane center currently doesnt have the capability to conduct animal trials, she says.


Tuttle says such markers could significantly advance research here into diseases such as diabetic kidney disease.


Biomarker development will be very important, she says.


Early results from that research at UW have been promising, but her colleagues there are seeking additional money to continue the work, Tuttle says.


Such research has a much broader focus than the focus the Spokane center had when it began.


When it opened as the Heart Institute in 1991, the center first focused on cardiovascular research and public education. Sacred Heart took over operation of the Heart Institute in 2004 and eventually changed its name to the Providence Medical Research Center. Tuttle says that has been a huge benefit to the center.


By becoming part of the hospital, the center ended up with a greater financial safety net and the resources to grow, she says.


Its budget has about tripled since Sacred Heart took it over, and because it took on a far broader mission than just cardiovascular research, it moved into far more research areas.


The program creates its own gravity to pull additional projects in and contributes a lot to the development of Sacred Heart as a regional center for medical expertise in a number of fields, Tuttle says.


Its a great recruitment tool for sophisticated specialists, who often are attracted to positions at facilities where they can continue research, Tuttle says. We say, Of course, if you bring your NIH (National Institutes of Health) study here we can support it.


Tuttle has created a lot of that gravitational pull, drawing attention to the center through national appointments she holds, including one as chairwoman of the National Diabetes Education Program Health Care Professional Work Group, and through original research that brings recognition to the center here.


Tuttle says she believes that Sacred Heart will emerge as a training hospital here in part because of the growing research program.


This is going to be the main teaching hospital here, she says. She says the hiring of eight faculty members for an expansion of the University of Washington medical school program, called WWAMI, at the Riverpoint Higher Education Campus also will help attract talent to the region.


Greater focus


Research has become more focused as research dollars have diminished, Tuttle says.


With less research money available from the U.S. governments National Institutes of Health, and fewer dollars available from foundations and medical companies, the studies being done today increasingly are those that will have the greatest impact, a trend thats ultimately good, she says.


Lean times stimulate productivity and creativity, as long as you dont starve, she says.


The Providence center does some privately funded research, which can lead to opportunities for better patient care here, but companies are becoming more conservative with their research dollars, Tuttle says.


One such study under way here is sponsored by Sirtex Technology Pty. Ltd., of Australia. Dr. David Liu, a Spokane interventional radiologist, is participating in a pilot study of treatment for metastatic liver tumors that involves a method of delivering a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy through a technology called microspheres, Tuttle says.


That treatment could improve quality of life for patients here, she says.


Federal dollars are most available for original, translational research, making it more difficult for centers that arent equipped to do such research to compete for money.


The opportunities to do translational studies are limited here because facilities dont have the ability to conduct all components of that research, Tuttle says.


Tuttle has been working to change that. She says that if the Institute for Systems Medicine, a planned biomedical research institute, is fully funded, and the WWAMI program is successful here, the Providence Medical Research Center will become a place where translational research can take place.


Although she increasingly takes on national appointments that give her the opportunity to be directly involved in shaping public health policy, its important to her to remain connected to primary research, too, Tuttle says.


Im really excited about research and I love collaborating, she says. Scientific people want to make a difference.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.