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ANN ARBOR,
MI - It takes a unified offense to defeat a stubborn foe. That's
why the University of Michigan
Health System plans to take on the nation's leading killer,
cardiovascular disease, in a new, $168 million Cardiovascular Center
that will unify operating rooms, patient rooms, clinics, classrooms
and laboratories.
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Future
layout of Cardiovasular Center,
click on image for larger view |
With today's
approval by the U-M Regents, the UMHS will immediately begin the
architectural planning for the first phase of a world-class Cardiovascular
Center for patient care. Construction of a 345,000 square foot
clinical facility and 400-space parking deck will begin in October,
2003, and the building will be in use by early 2007.
A second project
for an adjoining cardiovascular research facility is in the planning
stage and will be submitted to the Regents at a future meeting.
The clinical
care facility will rise from the "heart" of the U-M medical
campus. Nestled among major hospital and research buildings, it
will connect via artery-like passages to several levels of the University
Hospital, the Cancer and Geriatrics Center, and C.S. Mott Children's
Hospital.
Plans call
for the center and its parking garage to be built on the former
site of the "Old Main" hospital that served U-M patients
until the mid-1980s, along and behind a steep rise fittingly known
as "Cardiac Hill".
"Heart
attacks, strokes
and other cardiovascular problems kill more Americans than any other
disease group, and Michigan has the sixth worst coronary death rate
in the U.S.," says Kim Eagle, M.D., who on July 1 became the
Cardiovascular Center's clinical director. "We must fight back
with every weapon we have, and develop new ones through research.
This center will help us fulfill our mission to attack cardiovascular
disease in Michigan and throughout the nation."
The new clinical
building will help meet the surging demand for U-M cardiovascular
services. In the past five years, outpatient visits and inpatient
cases have risen by 33 percent. While the new center is being built,
UMHS will continue to offer cutting-edge treatment options for adults
and children with heart and vascular problems at its current facilities.
When completed,
the new building will feature eight operating rooms dedicated to
cardiac and vascular surgery, 24 intensive-care patient beds, 36
outpatient exam rooms, a total of 14 procedure labs where heart
and blood vessel exams, scans and procedures can take place, and
a state-of-the-art noninvasive diagnostic facility.
The all-in-one
design will ensure that patients will receive coordinated care from
their medical and surgical teams, from outpatient visits and tests
to surgery and recovery. Nearby teaching space will help UMHS train
tomorrow's cardiovascular specialists.
By the end
of the decade, the planned cardiovascular research building will
house more than 120,000 square feet of research laboratories for
30 top scientists and their teams. Their research into the molecular,
genetic and cellular underpinnings of heart and vascular disease
and treatment, will be conducted in grouped laboratory "neighborhoods"
that will foster integration and communication.
Having research
space closely connected to the center's clinical care area will
speed the transition of research discoveries into clinical practice.
That same concept is already in use at the U-M Cancer and Geriatrics
Center, which houses labs, offices and clinic and outpatient treatment
facilities.
The U-M Cardiovascular
Center concept received its initial approval in fall of the 2000,
giving UMHS the go-ahead to coordinate services, raise funds and
plan the space for the proposed buildings. Today's Regents approval
permits architectural design to begin - starting with the selection
of Boston architectural firm Shepley
Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott.
In addition
to the construction of the center's clinical building, the initial
project will include the removal of a staff parking lot, the demolition
of an outdated office building, and the building of a $16 million
parking garage for patients and staff. The total cost of the project
is $196 million.
Even as the
clinical care building is designed and built, fund raising will
continue for the research facility.
The Center's
clinical care, research and teaching activities will focus on the
entire spectrum of cardiovascular diseases, from high cholesterol,
high blood pressure, heart attacks, heart failure and stroke to
aneurysms, arrhythmias, heart valve disease and heart-related birth
defects.
UMHS already
boasts many strong programs to prevent, diagnose and treat these
conditions, and offers advanced clinical research programs to bring
new techniques and treatments to U-M patients before they're available
anywhere else in Michigan or the Midwest.
The Center's
team includes cardiologists; hypertension specialists; neurologists;
cardiac and vascular surgeons; anesthesiologists; radiologists and
nuclear medicine specialists; pharmacologists; geneticists; pathologists;
physiologists; and cell and molecular biologists. Specialized nurses,
social workers, transplant teams, clinical research coordinators
and laboratory staff round out the team.
The Cardiovascular
Center concept already brings all these programs together under
one organizational umbrella, says CVC administrator Linda Larin,
but the new building will make that cooperation easier by consolidating
their physical location.
The building
will bring together specialized services and facilities that are
now located throughout the medical center, from stress tests and
angiography to heart surgery and angioplasty.
Patients will
have their outpatient visits at the new building, or at a convenient
network of offices in Ann Arbor and other Southeast Michigan communities.
But the center will be a one-stop location for testing, imaging,
invasive procedures, major surgery, and intensive inpatient care.
Clinical services
for infants, children and teens provided by the world-renowned Michigan
Congenital Heart Center will remain in children's hospital and pediatric
outpatient facilities. Also before the Regents this week is a proposal
to expand the Pediatric Cardio/Thoracic Unit in the C.S. Mott Children's
Hospital from 12 to 15 beds by spring 2003. That unit provides intensive
specialized care for the hundreds of children who undergo heart
surgery through the Michigan Congenital Heart Center each year.
In all, the
new Cardiovascular Center will be designed to improve the clinical
experience for U-M patients, and to enhance the research and education
environment for U-M faculty, staff and students.
"Anyone
who has ever seen a loved one fight heart disease, battled their
own high blood pressure, or watched a friend cope with the aftermath
of a stroke, knows the pain and distress these conditions can cause,"
says Eagle, the Albion Walter Hewlett Professor of Internal Medicine
at the U-M Medical School. "This center will give our patients
convenient access to teams of specialists, advanced equipment, innovative
clinical trials, and ideas that spring from research in our labs."
The building
will help the Cardiovascular Center team continue its health care
delivery research, which devises and tests new ways of taking care
of patients with particular diseases so that they get the best results
from their treatment.
Eagle notes
that the new center will simultaneously reinforce and benefit from
the U-M's Life Science Initiative, an ongoing effort to focus the
University's resources for biomedical research. Current research
on the genes, proteins and molecules involved in cell signaling,
lipid biology, clotting and electrophysiology will all aid the understanding
and treatment of cardiovascular disease. And the Center's future
research building will provide a home for dozens of new researchers
to make further discoveries in these areas.
For more information
on the U-M Cardiovascular Center, visit www.med.umich.edu/cvc.
U-M
Cardiovascular Center Fact Sheet
Written
by: Kara Gavin
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