A total of $5 million in state lottery money is on its way to hire a scientist to lead a center for health-care quality research.

The Center for Healthcare Quality will conduct research on the state's health-care problems and how to better communicate information about those problems between scientists.

The state Research Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board on Monday approved the money.

The funding must be matched by a statewide collaborative of medical institutions called Health Sciences South Carolina.

Advertisement

The project is part of the collaborative, said HSSC executive director Judy Smith.

Formed in 2004 by Greenville Hospital System, the University of South Carolina, the Medical University of South Carolina and Palmetto Health, HSSC was designed to foster economic growth, medical research and patient care.

It later added Clemson University and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System.

Each of the partners pledged to invest $2 million a year for 10 years, which drew matching funds from the state, for a total of $240 million.

Two weeks ago, the collaborative announced a $21 million gift from the Duke Endowment to establish a virtual Center for Health Care Quality and Clinical Effectiveness that will link all the partners of the collaborative to research better methods of delivering health care.

"The Endowed Chair program creates a funding source for the research universities to recruit a renowned scientist in a particular field to come to South Carolina and carry out research that would help South Carolina," Smith said.

"Now we have another endowed chair, and today they approved our ability to go recruit that scientist," Smith said.