By: Elizabeth Ryan

The University of Minnesota Physicians group is opening a research and development lab near downtown Minneapolis later this summer.

The Mill City Innovation and Collaboration Center will develop new technologies to make general patient care easier.

Community health providers see more patients per year than the total number of specialty treatments, which is why the Mill City ICC will focus on improving the way patients receive primary care.

In an average community of 1,000 people, about 300 will come down with an illness in a given month, said Dr. Kevin Peterson, director of the University’s Center of Excellence in Primary Care. About eight of those people will be hospitalized, but fewer than one will go to the University’s hospital.

“And yet, almost all of our money [for research at the University] is spent on that one patient rather than back out in the community,” he said.

Peterson said prescription checkups could be an example of the everyday doctor’s appointments the center could help eliminate.

“You’re doing fine … on a medicine, and pretty soon you have to take off a couple hours from work to go see a doctor,” he said. “He looks at you and says, ‘You’re doing good,’ and pats you on the shoulder … and refills your prescription.”

Instead of going into a doctor’s office, all the tests a doctor might have run could be done at home with technology from the Mill City ICC.

“It’s really an unnecessary visit,” Peterson said. “We can do all of that at home.”

The center will be located in the University’s Mill City Clinic, and new technologies will be tested and applied without moving to another location. The center aims to make primary care a more rewarding experience, said Dr. Jon Hallberg, director of the clinic.

“We think that research ought to be done in the place where it will be applied,” Peterson said.

For more on University and business partnerships, pick up Wednesday’s Minnesota Daily.