Ideas from elsewhere: Education and Health Care

Delaware: Coordination and Branding. In 2000, the First State established the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (http://www.dbi.udel.edu), which brought state business-development agencies, colleges and universities, and life-science companies into a single networking and information center. It's part of Delaware's aggressive move to "brand" itself as a state friendly to education, the life sciences, and employment in these fields.

San Diego: Tax cuts and deregulation. San Diego itself is in a financial hole, yet the region is routinely ranked near the top for ed-med jobs. That regional strength is the product of smart choices. In the early 1990s, the city lost many of its aerospace and service-sector jobs. Starting with the mayoralty of Susan Golding, the city slashed business taxes and erased dozens of unnecessary business regulations. San Diego assigns each business sector its own case manager to coordinate and sometimes speed up application procedures. Such innovations helped create a local culture of small, durable life-sciences start-ups, companies that help grow one another and invite newbies. And the city has midwifed close formal relationships between businesses and local universities.

Boston: Public buy-in and workforce development. If you want to become the ed-med capital, as Boston is, it helps to have Harvard and MIT to work with. It also helps to have voter buy-in, which both Boston and Massachusetts do. In the last decade, both city and state have coordinated efforts to streamline regulation. State agencies are creating a "portfolio" of good towns ready for life-sciences start-up companies; the state provides fast-track paperwork for prospective start-ups. Most impressive of all has been Massachusetts' commitment to workforce development: It sinks money into making universities, businesses, and skilled students aware of one another.

Denver: True regional cooperation. Both Colorado and Denver aggressively seek to brand themselves as ed-med friendly - and they should, since Denver's environs host more than 400 life-sciences companies. The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver is a main hub for research, medical training, and doctor contact for the entire state; the state kicks in crucial funds for research. Boulder, Colo., has the research companies; Denver has the hospitals. So state and local agencies are cooperating to bridge the two and unify a very fast-growing life-sciences hub. A good example is the Fitzsimons Life Science District in the Denver suburb of Aurora. In a project that started in 1995, an old army hospital site is being converted into a massive biomedical park (http://colobio.com/timeline.html) under a 20-year, $4.3 billion plan.