Two Bay Area health care institutions had positive news about gifts/donations this week, as the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) announced it had received more than $6 million to study head and neck cancers. Oakland based Kaiser Permanente also released its list of grants and donations given, which total more than $19 million.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 UCSF said late Monday that it has received a $6.5 million gift from philanthropists Irwin and Joan Jacobs to study head and neck cancers. The university said the gift from the Jacobses, who live in La Jolla, is believed to be the largest private gift focusing on this kind of research. Irwin Jacobs founded Qualcomm and is a survivor of head and neck cancer. He received his treatment from two UCSF physicians.

The gift will create two distinguished professorships at one in the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and one in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

Head and neck cancers account for up to 5% of all cancers in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Oakland based Kaiser Permanente announced this week that it has approved $19 million in grants and donations to 465 nonprofit organizations nationwide in the third quarter of 2009.

The health care organization’s grants this quarter focused on improving the quality of care in public hospitals and community clinics, creating respite care programs for the homeless, providing communities with access to healthy foods during hard economic times, and awarding scholarships to children interested in careers in health care.

About $5.7 million was approved this quarter for projects focused on improving the quality of care at safety net organizations in California. These grants support staffing, processes, tools, and infrastructure at community clinics, public hospitals, and health systems.

Also seven Bay Area public hospitals and community clinics will receive grants of $300,000 to use the “Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes Everyday,” (PHASE) program. This is a therapeutic program that provides a bundle of medications, including low-dose aspirin, lisinopril, and lipid-lowering medication to reduce heart attacks and strokes in patients with heart disease or patients over 55 with diabetes.