PHILADELPHIA — The amount of money paid by a state medical malpractice insurance fund will decline for a fourth straight year, a sign that the state's malpractice problem is improving, Gov. Ed Rendell said Wednesday.

The Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error fund will pay about $191 million in claims this year, half of what was paid in 2003, when Rendell took office, the governor said during a news conference in Philadelphia.

The fund helps pay the cost of malpractice claims that rise above the $500,000 in primary coverage that the state requires each doctor to secure from the private marketplace.

"Pennsylvania is a success story when it comes to medical malpractice," Rendell said. "Thanks to thoughtful legislative reforms passed in 2002, along with aggressive judicial and administrative reforms implemented since then, the number of malpractice cases being filed and the cost of malpractice insurance continue to drop."

Dr. Peter Lund, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, a statewide doctors' lobbying group, said that while the medical malpractice climate has improved somewhat, it still compares poorly to other states.

The medical society has advocated monetary caps on awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits to reduce insurance costs, but has been unsuccessful in persuading the Legislature to pass such a measure.

PITTSBURGH — Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh will establish a pediatric research institute with a $23 million gift from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.Children's Hospital is collaborating with the University of Pittsburgh Medical School on the institute. Officials from Pitt and Children's Hospital announced the gift and the institute plans on Wednesday.The research institute will be at the new Children's Hospital campus now under construction in the city's Lawrenceville section. The new hospital is scheduled to open in May 2009 and is slated to cost more than $700 million.