By Emily Ford
Salisbury Post
Some 8,000 Kannapolis residents live in Rowan County, and many of them receive care at Rowan Regional Medical Center and its affiliated clinics.
Rowan Regional’s spokesperson said he hopes these patients and their doctors will have the opportunity to participate in the MURDOCK Study.
“We don’t have anything in the works,” said Michael Burton, corporate communications director. “However, we hope in the future to be able to coordinate with our physicians in some of these endeavors that Mr. Murdock is undertaking.”
David H. Murdock gave Duke University $35 million to launch a study aimed at fighting and preventing chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes.
MURDOCK stands for Measurement to Understand the Reclassification of Disease Cabarrus/Kannapolis.
“Especially if Rowan Regional Medical Center-South comes to fruition in a couple years, the location of that will be very near the N.C. Research Campus,” Burton said.
Rowan Regional is seeking state approval to build a 50-bed hospital in the Rowan side of Kannapolis.
MURDOCK Study officials at Duke have said they would like to reach out to physicians in Salisbury and Rowan County at some point.
“So far, we have not been approached,” Burton said.