Leadership Toledo, Part VII

Okay, yesterday was medical day for Leadership Toledo. Again, I was not looking forward to this topic. I was sure it was going to be a boring day of listening to talking heads tell us about the hospitals in the area.

By now, I should know that Dave Schlaudecker, the executive director of LT, will create a day that has interest. He didn't let me down this time, either.

We were all again divided into smaller groups and my group was assigned to the Center for Creative Instruction on the Health Science Campus of University of Toledo. This is the old Medical University of Ohio, before the merger with UT.

Wow! This is the most amazing jewel that most people don't know about. The Center does everything from create and manage websites for all of UT to creating DVDs to be used in teaching, marketing, recruiting and whatever other use can be dreamed!

One particular aspect of their work that they are very proud is the DVD Anatomy & Physiology Revealed. It is so wonderful that the publisher McGraw Hill thought so too and CCI works directly with this company to publish the DVD along with an anatomy textbook. McGraw Hill markets it directly to professors, but the DVD can be purchased at Barnes and Noble if you have a high school biology student in your life. This small group of 15 people are now working on the second edition, which is probably at least a two year project.

In another project they were asked to build a website and animation that explained the clinical trial for renal artery stenosis in order to gain more people in the trial. Now that's a mouth full, isn't it?!? The funding for that is from a grant from CORAL. (which I'm not sure what that is) They were successful in this project and then it was decided that both French and German versions were needed, too. They had to find local talent that could do the voice-over in those languages. Interestingly, the French version was done by a stay at home mom, not a a professional talent.

Roy Schneider is part of this small staff and has worked at CCI for 30 years. He started out loving both art and science. His dad told him that his art would never take him anywhere, but when he was working as a hospital orderly, one doctor realized Roy's talents and the rest is history. He is widely recognized and has won an award (that I cannot remember the name of) but it is the Oscar of his world.

Our time was way too short at this part of the medical world of NW Ohio. When we asked why we had never heard of this facility before, the answer was that the staff is all so busy with the multitude of projects that they just don't have time to do marketing or PR.

This was only the morning but I now understand that when we talk about the medical world here in the Toledo area, that there is a whole lot more than just hospitals.

Thanks, Dave. You make me so glad I am a member of this year's LT class.

And by the way, for those of you in the NW Ohio area, LT has an annual breakfast in March. If you'd like to find out more about it, touch base with me.