Designed to Transform the Patient Experience in the 21st Century
NEW YORK (February 21, 2006) — Weill Medical College of Cornell University has successfully completed its four-year $750 million capital campaign, Advancing the Clinical Mission — one of the largest ever undertaken by a medical school. The money raised will help transform the patient experience in the 21st century, with the construction of the first clinical building in the 108-year history of the Medical College. Along with other fundraising initiatives, Weill Cornell has raised more than $1 billion in the last 10 years.
"Thanks to the generosity of our donors and friends, the most ambitious capital campaign in the history of our Medical School has been completed ahead of schedule," says Sanford I. Weill, Chairman of Weill Cornell's Board of Overseers. "The money raised will help us continue to fulfill the Medical College's three-part mission of clinical care, research, and education."
"The completion of this capital campaign coincides with an ambitious long-term plan to improve the quality and accessibility of patient care," adds Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College. "These funds will enable Weill Cornell to recruit the very best faculty and students, and will ensure the College's global leadership in the prevention and treatment of illness."
"Weill Cornell Medical College is proud of and extremely grateful to the strong leadership provided by its Board of Overseers, who provided substantial funding for this campaign as well as tireless efforts, dedication, and vision," says Kevin Brine, Campaign Chairman and member of Weill Cornell's Board of Overseers. "The successful conclusion of the campaign is also due to the generosity of hundreds of donors, led by well-known national and international philanthropic institutions, corporations, and individuals — including alumni, faculty, and staff of the Medical College."
Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building
The centerpiece of the Campaign is the first new clinical facility in the 108-year history of the Medical College. The 13-story, $230-million Ambulatory Care and Medical Education building, located on the corner of East 70th Street and York Avenue, was begun in May 2004, "topped out" a year later, and is scheduled to open by the end of 2006.
A comfortable, modern, and aesthetically pleasing environment, the 300,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility will consolidate many clinical practices under one roof, giving patients a central location to obtain needed medical services — "one-stop-shopping" ambulatory care. The building will feature the Myra Mahon Patient Resource Center, combining a health education library with comfortable lounge seating, computer work stations and free, health education seminars.
By situating Weill Cornell students and physician-scientists closer to clinical care, the facility will be a model of medical education and will facilitate the kind of clinical research that leads to medical breakthroughs. The building will also serve as the new focus for patient care and medical education, as well as the flagship building for Cornell University in New York City.
New Clinical Initiatives
"To ensure the quality of our patient care, the campaign has funded new initiatives and facilities for many clinical programs, as well as new faculty recruitment, including several department chairs, and has helped us invest in innovative technology," Dr. Gotto says.
Clinical initiatives have been undertaken in the following areas:
- The Heart, supporting critical cardiac-care programs as well as pioneering research to slow or arrest the progression of cardiac disease.
- The Brain, bolstering the fight against stroke, stress, anxiety, and other disorders.
- Aging, expanding a widely acclaimed program that provides house calls for homebound older adults in the New York area in a way that combines patients' medical needs with medical education.
- Children's Health, expanding divisions and services with pioneering research and clinical care.
- Women's Health, funding an array of programs designed especially for women, including the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility.
- Specialty Care, supporting a wide range of fields, including dermatology, otorhinolaryngology, gastroenterology, cancer, and other clinical areas.
Education and Research Initiatives
Advancing the Clinical Mission has also made possible several medical education and research initiatives:
- Creation of an interactive Clinical Skills Center as a key component of the new Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building — a state-of-the-art simulated clinical environment for teaching and evaluating key medical examination skills for future generations of physicians.
- Expanding scholarship funding for medical students.
- A home for the new Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud Institute for Computational Biomedicine, which specializes in the development of research technologies employing mathematical methods, physics, and high-speed computing to analyze tremendous volumes of scientific data to test hypotheses about the structure and function of the human body, and search for clues to its mysteries.
- Faculty development awards, including Clinical Scholar Awards recognizing outstanding junior faculty and providing financial support to empower the College's finest minds to pursue their research interests.
Built on Dedication and Vision
"The planning and fundraising for Advancing the Clinical Mission represent a true tour de force, and an exercise in intense collaboration requiring hundreds of hours of manpower," concludes Mr. Weill. "We thank everyone who had the vision and foresight to extend our horizons, so that today we celebrate an historic moment in the life of the Medical College — the expansion of Weill Cornell's clinical and research programs that will better serve our families and all of New York. It is through the generosity of our donors and friends, our extraordinary physicians and scientists, our government and civic leaders that we can look forward to a new era of patient care."
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