Dr. Kesler, force behind the CMC, retires after 27 years

Hospital cancels employee raises
Will revisit issue in May or June

By Matt Kelly

Chief Clinical Officer Pam Cipriano urged Medical Center employees at a jam-packed town hall meeting Monday to remain upbeat in the face of can-
celed raises.

“Don’t let this blind you,” she said, emphasizing the importance of the center staying solvent. “We don’t want to get into the position of not being able to buy operating room equipment.”

Employees were told last week in a Jan. 10 letter signed by William E. “Nick” Carter, senior vice president of operations, that planned pay increases were canceled because of the hospital’s financial condition.

Two meetings were scheduled to discuss the moves, and employees took full advantage. The first meeting, held Monday night in the 65-seat Camp Heart Auditorium, drew a standing-room-only crowd, with people lining the walls, sitting on the risers and standing in the hall. Full story.

University’s Patent Foundation nurtures faculty entrepreneurs

By Charlotte Crystal

University researchers who want to turn their lab work into new products and services face the same challenges as other entrepreneurs — writing a busi-
ness plan, finding affordable space, arranging for interim financing and setting up organizational systems to handle personnel and accounting. They also face the additional task of persuading would-be backers that their still-experimental technology will work.

The University of Virginia Patent Foundation has rolled up its sleeves to help.

Through its for-profit subsidiary, Spinner Technologies Inc., the Patent Foundation has signed a five-year lease for about 2,000 square feet of laboratory space in the new Emerging Technology Center at the University of Virginia Research Park at North Fork, about eight miles north of Charlottesville. Although the building won’t be finished until spring, Spinner already has commitments from researchers who need the space. Full story.