The ‘University of Maryland 3’ Institute for Health Computing – Will It Compute the Social Cost of MoCo & Maryland’s Vice Promotions? – The Community Reports

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Have you heard?  A “game-changing” health institute is coming to ‘North Bethesda’. Note: back in my school days, say early 2000s, we simply called “North Bethesda” Rockville or White Flint. 

Re-elected “At Large” Council Member Evan Glass proclaimed in his ‘Glass Gazette’ E-Newsletter:

“With the signing of a new partnership between Montgomery County and several of the state’s largest academic institutions, we are now set become the “Silicon Valley of health computing”.  The Institute for Health Computing is a planned research center in North Bethesda that will bring together renowned researchers who are exploring artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality and medical experts to create a world-class hub of biotech discovery.“

Total Cost?

Total cost?  Per initial reports, a $15 million outlay gets the project off the ground.  That’s $15 million in MoCo tax dollars.  Also known as the people’s money, the residents’ money.  Aren’t there other needs in the community that could use $15 million?  It also needs $3 million in federal grants (to be applied for, of course). 

I then found another article by Health IT Analytics.com that parroted “The Institute is expected to open in early 2023 with initial funding of $25 million from MPower and $40 million from the Montgomery County government.” (Note: the $40 million figure is probably from the expected outlay of $5 million a year by MoCo taxpayers for several years, post 2023).  That’s a lot of government cheese.  “MPower” is a collab of MD Universities.  Yet more taxpayer money.  Where does it all come from?  Taxpayers present and future of course.

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Number of Jobs  

This is all being done for an initial 100 jobs across professors, researchers, grad students and some grant recipients.  That’s $180,000 per “job” if we take the low estimate above ($15+$3 million fed grant).  If we factor in “MPower” contributions, it is a lot lot more.   
Let’s skip the cost considerations and think about the dubious claims.  The “Silicon Valley of health computing”.  What does this even mean?  What will it even do?

HealthITAnalytics.com says:


“Our vision is for this to become the East Coast Silicon Valley for health computing,” he continued. “The goals of this new Institute perfectly align with the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s new strategic vision to utilize disruptive technology and embrace and harness the power of clinical analytics and precision medicine to enhance patient care and provide population health services.”

All of this sounds good at a presser, of course.  Will it actually occur?  No idea.  Discovery Communications was supposed to “revolutionize” downtown Silver Spring with its HQ.  It got copious County grants, including in 2018 when it got about $750,000, and then it departed the area for New York City a year later.  Politicians have a very poor track record on producing “grand visions”. 

Digging Deeper

But let’s dive even a bit deeper.  Montgomery County politicians love to promote “life sciences” and ‘public health’ as a policy and ‘economic driver’ but they promote very dubious vices as well: namely liquor, pot, lottery, gambling and more.  In Montgomery County, the sale and distribution of liquor is literally run by the “state” (the government).  This is a vestige of 1950s law and was in turn a vestige of Prohibition from the 1930s.

So, the same County officials promoting health and life science also use a liquor monopoly to promote liquor sales to residents.  Ever heard that liquor consumption promotes health?  Neither have I.  Though, I do enjoy a good bourbon from time to time.
They’ve claimed in the past that this monopoly “kept out a liquor store on every corner” but that claim is bogus.  The liquor monopoly has expanded locations in recent years as well as hours (now open on Sundays!) and in fact, the liquor stores openly advertise their wares via flyers and mailers to county residents.  When challenged on why liquor remains a monopoly in Montgomery County and basically nowhere else (certainly not at the county-level in Maryland), the politicians then crow about the “tax revenue” generated by the operation.

Many of these same politicians openly promoted the legalization of adult pot in Maryland on their social media as well, in the run-up to the elections (pot legalization easily passed in MD this November).  Smoking pot is no doubt a crucial part of “healthy living”.

The reliance on vices for tax revenue by Montgomery County government shows the incoherence at play by desperate politicians eager to promote literally anything they think will shore up the tax base of stagnate Montgomery County.  On the one hand, they’ll crow about “Health Computing” and “breakthrough public health initiatives” and on the other they’ll promote vices like liquor and pot.

Something’s got to give.  The best thing for the County to do would be to exit the liquor business and stop the pot promotion, too.  These vices can and will exist of course, and legal sellers should be allowed to sell their wares to adult consumers.  But to have the local government actively involved in these industries is madness in 2022.     

Greg

Roving Correspondent

Olney, MD

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