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.
With the approval of the U-M Regents now in hand, 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.
"This building will represent a major addition to the U-M medical center, bringing all our expertise together to focus on a single important group of diseases," says Lazar Greenfield, M.D., U-M interim executive vice president for medical affairs, who will present the project proposal to the U-M Regents at their Sept. 19 meeting.
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 Comprehensive 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. The Sept. 19 Regents vote permitted 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 http://www.med.umich.edu/cvc.
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