COLUMBUS, Ohio – Donatos founder Jim Grote and his wife Christina are donating $10 million to the Center for Integrative Health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center that will enable the center to become a national leader in delivering whole-person care to meet the health care needs of the people of Ohio.
The Center for Integrative Health, formerly known as the Center for Integrative Medicine, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year at Ohio State. The center focuses on providing a holistic approach to health and wellness that includes acupuncture, mindfulness, massage, ayurveda, yoga and more.
"We're grateful for Jim and Christina Grote's support for the innovative health care happening at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center," said Ohio State President Walter "Ted" Carter Jr. "This transformational gift will benefit learners and patients for years to come."
They have committed to giving: - $4.5 million to establish the Endowed Chair in Integrative Health, to be held by center director Maryanna Klatt, PhD. Once Klatt no longer holds the position, the endowed chair will be named after her, pending approval and appointment by Wexner Medical Center Board and The Ohio State University Board of Trustees.
- $1.5 million to establish a Professorship in Integrative Health Education.
- $4 million to create the Center for Integrative Health Faculty Recruitment, Education and Innovation Fund.
"Their generous gift will elevate the Center for Integrative Health to be a national leader of proactive, preventive health care delivery, research and innovation," said John J. Warner, MD, chief executive officer of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State. "It will help the center expand its educational initiatives for the health care professionals of tomorrow, including medical students and other health science graduate students, as a way to transform delivery of care."
The gift also will allow the center's Culinary Medicine programming to grow for learners and patients and will provide more classes and services to an expanded number of community members.
"Our hope is that our gift will encourage other donors to join in this enterprise of transforming health care where people are supported throughout their healing journey with compassionate whole-person care," the Grotes said. "Bringing together conventional and complementary health care will greatly benefit both those needing care for illness and those in the community who wish to be healthier and prevent illness. We are confident that educating health care practitioners and patients in the benefits of exercise, healthy diet, open hearts and minds, and a purposeful life will create a systemic change in health care as we know it."
Integrative health is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the relationship between practitioner and patient with focus on the whole person. It is informed by evidence and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, health care professionals and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing.
"Incorporating evidence-based integrative health is what patients want, and this gift allows us to be the reputational leader in focusing on the patient-practitioner relationship and the mind/body/spirit of each patient," said Klatt, clinical professor of family medicine in The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "I am humbled and thrilled with their generosity. Their gift is meant to inspire others to help bring this vision into reality, and I believe it will. They have planted the seed that will inspire others to help health care truly come to the forefront."
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