Two faculty members from Case Western Reserve University testified March 19 before subcommittees of the Ohio House of Representatives Finance Appropriations Committee urging the state to continue its support of funding partnerships in higher education and Medicaid support for dental services to uninsured people in Cleveland.

Daniel Anker, associate dean for faculty and institutional affairs at the medical school, presented testimony prepared by Jerold Goldberg, dean of the CWRU School of Dentistry and interim dean of the School of Medicine, asking the state to continue funding partnerships between private and public higher education institutions that lead toward the development of new technologies that have potential to boost Ohio's economy. He read Goldberg's statements to the higher education subcommittee.

Testifying before the human services subcommittee was Ronald Occhionero, associate dean of clinical affairs at CWRU's dental school. He urged maintaining funding for Medicaid dental health care services and not "balancing its budget" on the shoulders of Ohio's most disadvantaged citizens.

Approximately 30 percent of the 6,280 patients on the active rolls at the CWRU dental clinic are Medicaid patients, who account for some 5,000 clinic visits annually.

Occhionero told the committee that not only do patients benefit with visits to the clinics but the students and faculty benefit professionally by interacting and treating underserved populations.

If Gov. Bob Taft's budget is passed, Occhionero said that 30 percent of the patients from the Cleveland and Greater Cleveland community served at the clinic will be "forced to pay for their dental care."

He added that many will seek a more expensive alternative by going to hospital emergency rooms that lack dentists and will receive inadequate care that can lead to more costly and long-term medical problems.

Goldberg reported on strong partnerships the medical school has with the National Institutes of Health, in which the federal support is "the first step in a chain of actions that bring value to the state."

He also pointed out that CWRU has many partnerships with other higher education institutions and industry such as the Power Partnership for Ohio, the Cleveland Center for Structural Biology, the John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium, the Ohio Organic Semiconductor Consortium, the Ohio Consortium for Kinetic Spectrometry and the Liquid Crystal Institute.

"The contributions of Ohio's private research higher education institutions partnering and collaborating with public and private research institutions, business, industry and government help support and advance the educational, economic and social advancement of the state," Goldberg said.

He added that partnerships create centers of excellence, provide a critical mass of researchers and offer economic development packages to attract industry and boost the state's national visibility.

Goldberg urged their continued support for programs such as the Ohio Eminent Scholar, the Hayes Investment Fund and the Research Challenge Fund.