Crystal Hinson Miller, president of the IU Health Foundation, is a national leader in healthcare philanthropy. Here, she shares her personal thoughts.
Working in healthcare philanthropy since the late 1990s, I have heard and used the phrase “health care in destination” for many years. But it wasn’t until a few months after I arrived in Indiana that the phrase really popped up.
I moved here from Durham, NC, to join IU Health in 2017, with my husband and kids joining me a few months later. After we had a little time to settle in, my husband’s parents drove from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to visit our home in the fall, about 10 minutes from IU Health North Hospital.
That location proved to be crucial, because shortly after they arrived, my father-in-law had an aortic dissection, an often fatal tear in the wall of the aorta. We quickly took him to IU Health North, where it was decided that he needed treatment at IU Health Methodist. I vividly remember hearing a helicopter fly over our house to take him to downtown Indianapolis, where he was given literally life-saving care.
Notably, my father-in-law did not require the surgery that is usually necessary for aortic dissection because, here in Indiana, we have access to a leading academic medical center that pioneers and perfects the latest methods of care. Instead, non-surgical interventions put him on a path to recovery, interventions he probably wouldn’t have had access to in Fort Lauderdale, where there is no academic medical center.
This type of care, commonly known as destination healthcare, attracts people from all over the country to Indiana.
It was the kind of care that drew Chris Curry to Indiana. Diagnosed with testicular cancer in January 2022, Chris underwent chemotherapy near his home in North Carolina, but it didn’t have the effect his doctors expected. So they referred him to IU Health and Dr. Larry Einhorn. After doing a bit of research and chatting with Dr. Einhorn, Chris knew he had found a destination that needed care. And a destination for hope.
People come to Indiana from all over the country and even from around the world to get care at IU Health. But my point is not that we provide healthcare to the world; it is Hoosiers that have access to such famous healthcare every day.
For example, Ryan Hoke arrived in Indianapolis from Decker, Ind., just south of Vincennes, when it was decided that, after a decade of declining liver function, he needed a liver transplant. Some people fly across the country to get transplants at IU Health, but Ryan can only travel for a few hours on the road. A year later, he wrote a letter to the IU Health team thanking them for making it possible for him to see his son graduate from preschool – an experience he had suspected a year earlier.
As a wellness destination that puts world-changing therapies and care within reach of those living nearby. It makes creative therapies available years before they are found elsewhere. It treats conditions and diseases that would otherwise be considered untreatable. It grants access to clinical practices found nowhere else.
A key component of what makes Indiana a wellness destination is IU Health’s team of elite medical scholars. These innovators drive new visions of care and also attract other healthcare pioneers who want to practice and shape the leading edge of medical care.
The new IU Health academic medical center in downtown Indianapolis will enhance our state’s status as a healthcare destination by creating one of the largest, state-of-the-art hospitals; largest medical school in the United States; a wide range of cutting-edge medical centers; and more. When we created this magnet to appeal to people from all over the world, we also provided its benefits to people living around the corner, down the street, and across the state.
Even as we honor IU Health’s incredible experts who have made Indiana a wellness destination, we honor the people and organizations that support pioneering medicine with charitable gifts. Our team simply would not be able to create breakthrough therapies, introduce new approaches, and set new standards of care without the vision and generosity of our donors.
Donors like you who make it possible for us to provide care drew Chris Curry from a faraway state, drew Ryan Hoke from Southern Indiana, and, yes, that saved my father-in-law when he was so far away from home but exactly where he needed to be.
Thanks to people like you, IU Health is a health care destination for people near and far.
