Transforming the Future of Health Care in South Florida
In recent years, few regions of the United States have grown as swiftly as South Florida, and with it, Miami-Dade County. South Florida, once known as a haven for retirees from other parts of the country, has attracted a rapidly growing population of younger newcomers, as families with children from across the United States are increasingly attracted to Miami-Dade’s bustling economy, appealing lifestyle, and pro-growth policies.
This influx of new arrivals has increasingly strained the region’s existing health care centers. To address the needs for high-quality medical care and research for the region’s wide-ranging, demographically diverse population, Griffin Catalyst is supporting institutions meeting the unique health care needs of the community—from exceptional pediatric treatment for young people to advancements in neuroscience and cancer research for adults and seniors.
WHO WE’RE SUPPORTING
Griffin Catalyst has focused on three areas of growing medical need in the Miami metropolitan area, through major support of three of the region’s premier health care institutions, which, together, experience millions of hospital visits each year.
Support for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is focused on enhancing the quality of pediatric care for families throughout South Florida. A $25 million gift supported the construction of the Kenneth C. Griffin Surgical Tower, a five-story, 131,000-square-foot building that will enable the hospital to provide state-of-the-art care for thousands of young patients who require surgical procedures each year. The structure’s new operating rooms will replace existing facilities more than three decades old, most of which lack the size and ceiling height to fit the latest equipment and modern surgical teams. Set to open this fall, the building will also allow Nicklaus to improve patient experience by offering generously sized, fully private pre- and post-surgical care space for the children and families it serves.
A $50 million gift to the University of Miami Health System’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, meanwhile, will support oncological research and treatment for the region’s families through the development of the Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building. Located in the heart of the Medical Campus near downtown Miami, the new 12-story, 244,000-square-foot structure will double the space dedicated to research at the Center, which is part of the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. In 2019, Sylvester was named a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, one of only 72 facilities nationwide to hold the distinction. Beyond its expanded research capacity, the new structure will encourage an innovative approach to cancer treatment by including two floors devoted to clinical care, for the first time bringing scientists and patient care together in the same facility and encouraging a focus on “total-body wellness” during treatment to improve the overall quality of life of its patients.
And $50 million in support for Baptist Health South Florida, the largest single donation in the hospital’s history, will advance research and care for neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other movement disorders through the expansion of the Baptist Health South Florida’s Miami Neuroscience Institute. Like Sylvester, the Institute will include not only extensive laboratory space but also clinical areas where the region’s neurological patients are treated on a daily basis. This cutting-edge “co-location” of researchers and working physicians is expected to foster higher levels of collaboration and innovation and lead to crucial advances in neuroscience and neurodegenerative disorders.
WHAT’S THE IMPACT
Together, the new structures and expanded resources of the three institutions will dramatically improve every aspect of medicine and health care across South Florida—from advancing basic research and accelerating the development of new therapies to increasing access to new, promising treatments. At the most basic level, they will improve the availability of world-class, compassionate health care for the region’s nearly ten million local residents, along with tens of thousands more who travel each year from around the Caribbean and from Central and South America to receive treatment from South Florida’s world-class medical institutions.
Building on Griffin Catalyst Founder Ken Griffin’s long history of supporting world-class medical institutions—including partnerships with Boston Children’s Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a leader in Parkinson’s research—the new gifts will also advance scientific understanding of some of the 21st century’s most critical medical challenges and represent a major step toward the goal of ending these and other life-threatening diseases in our lifetime.
Griffin Catalyst’s support of these three well-established and fast-growing medical centers will have a significant impact on the millions of patients who have seen their lives transformed by the institutions’ commitment to hope, dignity, compassion, and care. One such patient is Sebastian Krys, a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer who, diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 48, was limited by his medical condition to just five hours of activity each day—until he came into the hands of Dr. Diego Torres, a determined physician at Baptist Health. “I am now getting about 13 or 14 hours a day of my normal self—which meant I could work, meant I could travel, meant I could enjoy my kids, I could go to concerts, I could live my life,” Krys declared at the March 2024 ceremony for Griffin Catalyst’s gift. “Mr. Griffin, this is life-changing for us, to deal with these diseases. I can’t put into words what this means to the communities that deal with neurological diseases.”
