The Johns Hopkins Gazette: August 3, 1998
August 3, 1998
VOL. 27, NO. 41

  

In Brief

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Goddard grant to fund high-tech business incubator

A working partnership between four research universities and two economic development corporations has paid off with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center awarding $800,000 toward starting a high-technology business incubator in Baltimore.

The Maryland Economic Development Corp. submitted the grant application in conjunction with the Baltimore Development Corp.; The Johns Hopkins University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Morgan State University; and the University of Maryland at Baltimore.

The business incubator, to occupy approximately 20,000 square feet of renovated space in the American Can Company building in Canton, will nurture small firms geared toward developing commercially viable products using Goddard technologies. Plans allow for future satellites of the incubator to be located at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and at the old Eastern High School property, now owned by Hopkins.

"[This arrangement] has the potential to knit together the considerable resources of all the research universities and other business development services in the Baltimore region in the support of the creation and survival of small high-technology firms," said Marsha Schachtel, a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, who helped prepare the grant application.

The business incubator space will be ready this fall, but the high-tech firms that will occupy it have not been selected yet. The process may take several months, said Schachtel. These small companies, or start-up ventures, will benefit from initial low rents, use of equipment and staff support.
-Glenn Small


Joint venture for physical therapy, wellness clinics

Johns Hopkins Medicine and Fitness Forum, a health care provider and consulting firm based in Syracuse, N.Y., have signed an agreement to establish a network of rehabilitation facilities throughout metropolitan Baltimore.

The joint venture, known as Fitness Forum of Maryland, will operate four facilities inside the Merritt Athletic Clubs in Annapolis, Woodlawn and Towson and in the Downtown Athletic Club in Baltimore. JHM will provide clinical oversight and quality control to the facilities and have a presence on the joint venture's management committee.

Under terms of the agreement, Hopkins has an equity interest of about 25 percent in Fitness Forum of Maryland, which is expected to generate a two-way referral stream, according to Terry Langbaum, director of hospital affiliations for the Johns Hopkins Health System.

"We may get referrals from patients who come to the sites with sports injuries and who need a physician referral for rehabilitation services," she said. "Conversely, we expect to refer patients to the Fitness Forum rehabilitation facilities when it is convenient and appropriate for them."

Fitness Forum integrates patient education into each individual's treatment protocol, along with an exercise program directed specifically toward injury prevention and health maintenance. All patients being treated at any of the four clinics will have free use of that athletic club facility for 60 days. "These extended fitness memberships and prescribed exercise routines following discharge from acute rehabilitation [are] to encourage a continuing lifestyle for our patients," said James Smith, CEO of Fitness Forum.

Throughout the year, Fitness Forum will hold for its communities a series of lectures, seminars and injury clinics on such topics as sports medicine, fitness during pregnancy and estrogen therapy.

Fitness Forum currently operates 14 physical therapy clinics in New York State, Connecticut and Massachusetts.


Evergreen House to survey Japanese decorative objects

Hopkins' Evergreen House, the former residence of ambassador John Work Garrett, has received a grant of $11,664 from the Stockman Family Foundation for a condition survey of its Japanese decorative arts objects.

Exhibited in the historic house museum in a space converted from a bowling alley by architect Laurence Hall Fowler in 1922, the 724 objects comprise one of the largest privately owned collections of Japanese "minor art" outside Japan. It is also one of the oldest.

Begun by T. Harrison Garrett (1849-88) as Japan was opened up to the West and continued by his son John (1872-1942), the collection includes inro, netsuke and suzuribaka, masks, tea ceremony objects, tsuba, kozuka, snuff bottles and incense objects. The condition survey will aid in the creation and implementation of a new conservation program.

The Stockman Family Foundation is a nonprofit privately supported philanthropic institution organized to advance the knowledge and practice of conservation of historic and artistic property in the museum and university domain.


Peabody Prep sets fall classes in Annapolis

Peabody Preparatory's fall term at its Annapolis branch campus, located at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, begins Aug. 31 with an expanded curriculum of music lessons and classes. The 17 instructors are musicians who teach at Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore.

Enrollment is open to infants, children, teens and adults. Tuition varies according to class size and number of weeks of instruction. For details, call 410-269-5343.


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