When Henry and Susan Samueli first started their foundation in Corona del Mar in 1998, integrative health was one of the two areas of focus.
In 2000, the foundation funded the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California-Irvine, a testament to Susan’s passion.
Over the years since, they saw scientific evidence that validated the integrative health approach and started looking for ways to take the center to the next level.
The result: a $200 million gift from the Samueli Foundation to UCI last week, the largest in UCI’s history and the seventh-largest to a single public university, according to UCI.
Here’s how the gift breaks down: $50 million to build the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences; $5 million for technology and labs; and $145 million for a permanent endowment to fund faculty recruitment and scholarships and fellowships for students.
Integrative health combines alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and nutrition, with conventional medicine. It looks at the whole person—environmental factors, spiritual beliefs—“body, mind and spirit.”
It focuses on wellness and prevention rather than treating disease, and it emphasizes the patient-physician relationship.
Joe Kiani, founder of Irvine-based Masimo Corp., said the efforts of the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences will “hopefully create more jobs and more research locally.”
It’s also significant to the business community because it reflects the continued growth of Orange County as a leader of innovation in the medical field, said Richard Sudek, chief innovation officer and executive director of UCI’s Applied Innovation, the university’s innovation and entrepreneurship center.
“As UCI helps pioneer the future of healthcare, the local business community will play a critical role in helping bring this great research into the world, where it can have a profound impact on many lives,” Sudek said.
And it underscores UCI’s pattern of being at the vanguard of universities across the country, including UCI’s creation of the first earth systems science department in 1995.
“Time and time again, we have learned as a campus that you cannot copy your way to the top,” UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman said during a public announcement on campus on Sept. 18. He considers the new college to be a first in the U.S.
Opposites Attract
Henry Samueli holds a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. Susan transitioned from systems engineering to nutrition, earning a doctorate from the American Holistic College of Nutrition.
Henry co-founded chipmaker Broadcom at the University of California-Los Angeles with the other Henry, student Henry Nicholas. They moved their semiconductor firm to Irvine in 1995, and it remains the largest employer among chipmakers in OC at a 1,630 headcount, based on the Business Journal’s list in May.
Susan helmed the start of the Samueli Foundation as Broadcom went public. It ranked No. 29 on the Business Journal’s recent list of private foundations—a number sure to leap next year. The Samuelis are top-five mainstays on the Business Journal’s annual wealthiest list, especially since the 2016 sale of Broadcom to Avago Technologies.
Focused
Integrative health and STEM education—science, technology, engineering and math—are the beneficiaries of the Samuelis’ generosity.
Henry Samueli, a “hard-core” scientist and engineer, according to his wife, became an advocate of integrative health because of her.
“When I feel a cold or flu coming on, rather than run to the doctor, I run to Susan to figure out which homeopathic remedy or Chinese herb I should be taking,” he said at last week’s announcement.
The center has grown in demand and popularity—a “dramatic” increase, Susan Samueli said last week, adding that their whole family uses integrative health practices.
The couple’s gift will merge the center into the college. New healthcare personnel will be hired. The center, which will become an institute, will focus on improving medical care through support of research across disciplines “by seeking synergies between conventional approaches with the integrated health approach,” said Howard Federoff, chief executive of UCI Health system and vice chancellor of health affairs.
Both Samuelis received the UCI Medal in 2000, the university’s highest honor, for their “exceptional contributions to the campus mission of teaching, research and public service.”
The Idea
The Samuelis brainstormed with Gillman and Federoff on the gift and the college.
The Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences puts a name on the existing college of health sciences and will give it a home at the corner of Bison and California avenues. The building will house UCI’s school of medicine; the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing; the pharmacy school, which is now the department of pharmaceutical sciences; and the population health school, which is now a program in public health, in addition to Susan Samueli’s institute—“all undergirded by integrated health—inclusion of that approach into the care we deliver,” Federoff said.
Kiani said he foresees an impact well beyond the campus. “The benefit isn’t just going to be local,” he said. “I think something like this could have a large impact globally. If we can really marry what works with [modern] medicine with the more old-world holistic medicine and get better results, it should not only help people live healthier, longer lives, but also reduce the cost of healthcare, and get a healthier workforce.”
Gillman noted that he and the Samuelis visited several health systems and academic medical centers in the U.S. and abroad in their due diligence. He saw many moving in UCI’s direction, but only incrementally, “progress often blocked by established silos and conservative cultures.”
Role of Tech
Samueli said he’s excited about advances in artificial intelligence, big-data analytics and sensors and wearables to monitor personal health. At Susan Samueli’s center, tech is used in genetic tests and advanced biomarker tests to see the earliest signs of disease or to study the predisposition to disease.
“We hope in the future to be able to incorporate genomic, biomarkers and advanced imaging techniques, along with data from wearables to truly offer lifestyle programs in which patients can see the benefit by tracking their health using this type of data,” said Shaista Malik, director of the Susan Samueli center.
The Samuelis will be honorary co-chairpeople of an upcoming UCI fundraising campaign. Their $200 million gift follows more than $70 million in support to UCI over the years.
