Oakland To Market Itself As Medical Mecca

Oakland County is tentatively referring to this consortium of health care as “Oakland Medical.”

The initiative focuses on the county’s abundant medical and life science industry which boasts some of the top hospitals, universities and medical device companies in the United States.

The county, along with William Beaumont Hospitals, McLaren Health Care Corp. and Oakland University, commissioned a study from the Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group to examine the strength of the life science industry in Oakland County and the potential for growth. It concluded the county could add 45,000 jobs in the next 10 years, making it one of the largest employment sectors in Oakland County.

“There is a trend here,” Patterson said. “As we looked at our Economic Outlook report, coupled with the success of the Emerging Sectors program, it became clear that the medical sector should be targeted for expansion. The study confirmed what we sensed. Life sciences could go right off the charts in Oakland County. It could mean billions of dollars of investment and thousands of new jobs.”

The Anderson study predicted that the average annual wage for the 45,000 new jobs would be about $50,000 but medical research jobs in the $80,000 to $90,000 a year would be targeted.

The county ranks first in the state in the number of pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing plants (10), medical equipment and supplies manufacturing plants (62) and medical office clusters (3,274). The county's research shows more than 4,300 health care and life sciences establishments in total and 93,000 employees.

“This report clearly shows that Oakland County is a leader in the health care and life sciences industry both within Michigan and a much larger geographic area,” said Scott Watkins, senior consultant for the Anderson Economic Group and the report’s author. “The county has the tools to build this industry and make it into an important part of the county’s and the region’s future economic prosperity.”

Before announcing the initiative publicly, Patterson met privately for 90 minutes with top officials from area medical providers to unveil his five-point branding plan. It includes targeting patients from outside the region or “medical tourists,” commercializing technologies and products, development and training of future work forces to meet increased demand, seeking state and federal grants and partnering with existing companies to attract new businesses to Oakland County.

There are several important medical projects under way or recently opened in Oakland County, including expansions of Henry Ford West Bloomfield, Providence Park in Novi, a Beaumont-Oakland University medical school, the proton beam therapy cancer center at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, McLaren Health Care Village in Independence Township and a surgical expansion at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac.

As a part of the initiative, Patterson is also creating an Oakland County Life Sciences Advisory Board.