UF Health announces $75 million initiative to expand Norman Fixel Institute
Through being treated at the Norman Fixel Institute for the past 12 years, John Gabriel has learned that having Parkinson’s disease isn’t a death sentence.
Gabriel, a 66-year-old Winter Park resident, said doctors at the institute have an almost youthful approach since they’re so upbeat, and they have helped him manage the disease in the best way he could to improve his quality of life.
“They’re excited to do what they do,” Gabriel said. “They have a way of connecting with people beyond the bedside manner.”
Gabriel said he’s seen a seamless transition in the institute with all of the expansions and transformations it has had in staff and services. All of this has been possible through gifts from UF Health, private donors and the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation.
University of Florida and UF Health announced a $75 million initiative Tuesday morning to expand the Norman Fixel Institute, including a $25 million gift from the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation.
The institute — dedicated to Parkinson’s disease and dystonia research along with other movement disorders — was founded two years ago and named after Norman Fixel, the father of Lee Fixel.
The donations are meant to help expand the institute's work in telemedicine, Alzheimer’s disease clinical research and mental health research and services.
Dr. Kelly Foote, one of the leaders in the growth of the institute, said the initiative includes a $25 million gift from the family foundation, another $25 million from UF and another $25 million from private donors.
Dr. Michael Okun, who has worked with Foote on the institute’s expansion, said he has always seen the institute as a village, and he believes that it is important to assemble a diverse group of people on staff to view the patients as people in their village and community.
“Early on, we decided that our philosophy we were gonna stick with was gonna be simple: the person with the disease is the sun, and we should all orbit around the person,” Okun said.
Okun said the donations will help turn the institute from a local campus into a true interdisciplinary care, research and training center for people to go to from all over the world. He attributed the success of the center to the increase in staff and the opportunities in the center that have been aided through donations.
“This is all about all these people around us, that’s why we’ve been successful,” Okun said.
Foote said he plans to promote a new wing on the campus devoted to mental health problems. He wants the institute to be the place for people to consider the best place in the world to get the best care for neurological diseases.
“We’re really grateful for the support, and we’re excited to move this thing forward and turn this into the place that you would go if you could go anywhere,” Foote said.