For the last week our local Sioux Falls S.D. paper has been running a series of articles on the competition between four diseases for a sizable grant from the local Sanford Health system to fund research to find a cure of the disease selected. In competition for millions of research dollars are Type 1 diabetes, pediatric MS, lupus, and HPV-related cancers (papillomavirus)...all of this made possible by a $400 million gift from T. Denny Sanford..
Today the Argus Leader report that "If selected, Sanford would work with researchers and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society on developing new treatments and revamping existing adult treatments to help children with MS. The National MS Society in turn would establish a hub in Sioux Falls for its children's research and care centers."
Each day the paper features one of the four diseases, gives vital statistics on the disease, along with comments from noted authorities and local researchers and physicians. Town's people, like me, amuse ourselves with speculation on which disease will win the competition to be announced on June 6. So far, the edge, I think, goes to diabetes because of the prominence it will bring to Sanford Health, a close second, I would guess, is pediatric MS (thanks to all those on the MS walks across the country spreding the word, so to speak).
So, it is "bang for your bucks" month around here... to find out which disease will embellish and polish the Sanford Health image the most. I am surprised there are no official handicap odds out to guide us.

Many years ago when the $400 million was first written about, it was in connected with a Sanford gift to the Mayo Clinic, 220 miles down I-90 to the east; but Mayos apparently was not sufficiently interested in sharing publicity with Sanford, so the loot went to our local Sioux Valley hospital system... now Sanford Health.Local clinics and doctor groups were gobbled up and folded into Sanford....and every other building in town now has the Sanford name on it...fitness centers included.
Sioux Falls was always a split medical community. You were either McKennan, the local Catholic hospital, or Sioux Valley Hospital. There was no in between and no compromising, it was one or the other period. (S.D. is so solidly republican that politics was never a wedge issue between friends or family.. but hospital affiliation certainly was: MCKennan or Sioux Valley, or go 220 miles down the road to Mayos if you don't like it) Now it's disease's turn, it seems.
At the other end of the state, S.D. turned the Homestake Gold Mine into a high tech, particle-research facility, or something like that. At this end of S.D., we just continue to play the same old, all too familiar hospital game, except with four, rather than two players.
It is hard to get too cynical in a state that votes on abortion every election.... you cannot live in flatter country than that.

I thought you guys might be interested in knowing all this since it seems your fates are on the line here. I don't know that there is anything that can be done to tip the balance one way or the other. The Lupus folks promised the same centralized hub for Sioux Falls, just like the MS guys have. So unless you've made a fortune in the credit card business, like T. Denny, and have an extra $400 million to play the health/disease competition game, wait until June 6, like we have to. I'll be certain to let you know the outcome, though, one way or the other.