Catalyst Award: Frank Thompson

Frank Thompson
If you were born in the Depression, you weren’t selfish. You become very sympathetic. And everyone helped each other then. So it was easy for me to jump in and try to do things when I saw a need.

Steven Stites, MD
The Thompson family is one of the most generous giving families in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The work they've done to try to advance head injuries and research and patient care is really, really important for us. It's important for our community. It's really important for patients.

Tammy Peterman
I remember early on meeting Frank Thompson, and it was because he wanted to thank us for the way we cared for his wife. I think that prompted him to think of ways that he could help support our organization.

Shawn Long
Healthcare is very personal. Typically, donors are interested in supporting things that they have a very close personal relationship with. And in Frank's case, it was the care of his wife, Babe, that she received while she was here.

Russell Swerdlow, MD
Babe’s sister had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and they wanted to do something about that. It was hard to see Babe lose ground after she developed her own fight with Alzheimer's disease, and it was very difficult for Frank as well, but they faced it with tremendous dignity and courage.

Frank Thompson
Dr.  Swerdlow, he was a lot of support and he worked with me in the last month or so my wife was alive. He even came to my house every night to help me with her. He came there to support me and kind of guide me through a rough time in my life.

Russell Swerdlow, MD
Frank and Babe. They believed in me and that meant the world. Their financial support has allowed me to do things that I never would have done in the laboratory. It's just turbocharged my entire research program.

Steven Stites, MD
In health care, there's health care delivery, doctors, nurses, patients, the whole team taking care of the people who need that care. Then there is the research component. When you take a family like the Thompsons, who help us work in both areas, it just makes all the difference.

Paul Camarata, MD
Frank has taken that desire and channeled it into a number of gifts here at The University of Kansas Health System. Exablate is a way of treating certain movement disorders, namely the present time tremor and tremor dominant Parkinson's disease, the intraoperative MRI is something that allows us to take out more of a given tumor. So slide into the MRI scans, see oh there’s still a lot of tumor left. Come out. Remove it. Do the same thing again and again. The exoscope is essentially a 3D camera with a light source that you can move anywhere. I need surgery on my neck because I spent 30 years hunched over a microscope like this. Now, with the exoscope, we can literally operate on something without having to get into unusual positions with our neck and shoulders. Epilepsy surgery has made some amazing advances over the last decade. One of those is the increased use of what we call SEEG or stereotactic EEG, and that is where we take electrodes and place them into the brain. With the aid of this robot, you can simply push a button. It speeds things up and allows us to treat and heal a lot more patients.

Tammy Peterman
It's pretty remarkable when you think about the support that Frank and his wife, Babe, have given to our organization over time. It has an impact on our program. It has an impact on our physicians and our staff. It has an impact on our patients. And I think that's the impact that Frank Thompson wants to make at our place in our community.

Shawn Long
What he's allowed us to do will impact generations to come. So, extremely proud and grateful for Frank Thompson and his wife, Babe.

Russell Swerdlow, MD
Frank is a very generous person and he becomes vested in those that he invests in. He's been doing good for a real long time, and he's been around for a while, and he's not done yet.

Steven Stites, MD
Catalyst Awards are for people who bring profound and meaningful change and help galvanize change within a health system and a hospital. The Thompson family has helped catalyze change in the area of Alzheimer's disease, neurology and neurosurgery in general.

Paul Camarata, MD
It is wonderful that we are honoring Frank with the Catalyst Award from The University of Kansas Health System. There is really no one more deserving in the community.

Frank Thompson
I never dreamed this would happen. It's very nice and it's a prestigious award. But most of all, I'm glad that I'm able to help people.