A new medical institute in Fresno is bringing advanced neuroscience treatment and research to the San Joaquin Valley, reducing the need for patients to travel to San Francisco or Los Angeles for care.
The Bob Smittcamp Family Neurosciences Institute formally opened with a flourish at a public reception May 21 at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno. The five-story, 60,000-square-foot building represents an investment totalling $30 million, all provided by donors from throughout the Fresno area.
It’s the culmination of an idea launched in 2018 by an $11 million donation from prominent Fresno businessman Robert “Bob” Smittcamp, who died in 2021. His family carried on the fundraising after his death.
Neuroscience comprises a wide range of issues involving the human brain and nervous system, including brain tumors and brain injuries, stroke, epilepsy, spinal injuries and movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, said Dr. Ian Johnson, chairman of neurosciences for Community Regional Medical Center.
The institute brings to the Valley the capacity for newer treatment capabilities that were not previously available locally. Johnson cited stroke, a condition in which time is of the essence to minimize lasting damage to the brain, as an example.
In an interview with CVJC, Johnson said Community Regional and its neurosciences institute now offer a procedure called a thrombectomy. “It’s a type of minimally invasive procedure to often reverse a lot of stroke symptoms” such as an inability to speak or paralysis of an arm or leg, he said. A thrombectomy allows a surgeon to remove the blood clot that caused the stroke and store blood flow to the affected part of the brain.
“As we say, time is brain,” Johnson said. Being able to provide that type of surgery and other forms of treatment locally “really changes things because all the money in the world can’t get you to a helicopter and fly you to San Francisco or Los Angeles in time to treat that stroke,” he added. Offering such care in Fresno “is a game changer for those of us that live here in the Valley and for those of us who have older patients in the Valley.”
The new institute is now the only comprehensive stroke center in the San Joaquin Valley, he added.
At the outset of the institute’s development five years ago, Community Regional had only a few doctors and several advanced practitioners such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Now, Johnson said, ‘the facility has grown substantially, with over 60 physicians, 30 advanced practitioners, and 60 staff members.”
The institute building is primarily geared toward outpatient care including diagnostics and rehabilitation. It is festooned with dozens of exam rooms, an infusion center, and spaces aimed toward neuroscience research. More substantial inpatient care including surgeries are spread among the adjacent Community Regional Medical Center and sister facilities including Clovis Community Medical Center and the Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital.
Johnson related a story about a patient he saw shortly after he moved to Fresno in the early 2010s. The woman had a large brain tumor, and Johnson referred her to UC San Francisco for treatment. She returned several months later, blind in one eye and losing sight in her other eye. The woman told him that her family didn’t have the resources available to sustain a stay in San Francisco.
“That’s when I realized that this is a population that was a little bit unique and we needed to build this center here in the Central Valley,” he said. Five years ago, in the fledgling institute’s first year, it served about 2,500 patients. “This year we’re going to see more than 27,000 patients.”
Brent Smittcamp, described the formal opening of the institute bearing his father’s name as “monumental, as far as what my dad wanted to accomplish.” He added that he believed his father would be proud of every aspect of it, “but probably the lone exception would be his name plastered on the front of the building.”
Brent Smittcamp said the project sprang from a pair of neurological injuries that affected the family: a cousin who experienced a near-fatal brain aneurysm, and an industrial accident at the Smittcamp packing house in which Brent Smittcamp suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“Unfortunately, with both issues, there just wasn’t the local neuro care that we needed,” he said. “We had to travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles and endure that whole process. …”
“So obviously we had a problem in the Central Valley, and the way my dad was wired, if there’s a problem, don’t whine about it; find a solution,” Brent Smittcamp added.
The opening of the center marks a continuation, rather than the conclusion, of the institute’s development. “If we get where we need to get, we will have six or seven spinal surgeons, two or three vascular surgeons, and two functional neurosurgeons,” said Kudzi Muchako, vice president of neurosciences for Community Medical Centers and chief operating officer for the Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital.
With patients already being referred by hospitals from Modesto in the north to Bakersfield in the south, “we want to make sure we’re appropriately equipped and staffed to meet the needs of an underserved community,” Muchako added.
Tim Sheehan is the Health Care Reporting Fellow at the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. The fellowship is supported by a grant from the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust. Contact Sheehan at tim@cvlocaljournalism.org.
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