Facilities
The Comer Children's Hospital
Gary C. Comer, founder of the Lands' End clothing-catalog company, and his wife, Frances, have made a $21-million donation to help build the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. Construction of the state-of-the-art $130-million facility, designed to be at the forefront of pediatric care in the new century, was completed late 2004. This matches the largest donation ever presented to the University of Chicago Hospitals. It is the fourth largest naming gift to any U.S. children's hospital.
The 242,000 square-foot, 155-bed, seven-story facility provides an ultra-modern yet child-friendly setting for all inpatient children's health services at the University of Chicago Hospitals, including nationally recognized programs in cardiology, neurology, neonatology, transplantation and other medical and surgical specialties. It was designed not just by architects and health care providers but also by current and former patients, who contributed features that will bring many of the comforts of home into the hospital.
Berman and Hannah Friend Center for Family Health Care
The Department of Pediatrics has moved its general pediatric practice, as well as the Woodlawn maternal and Child Health Center, to the Berman and Hannah Friend Center for Family Health Care. This free-standing building will provide an excellent community setting for families and opportunity for continuity of care experiences for our medical school students. The Men of Color Access Program is an initiative that improves access to health care services for minority males. The Peer Advocate Program targets adolescent males in at-risk communities and trains them to become peer educators. The Doula Project links pregnant teenagers with a labor and delivery coach (a Doula) to ensure the best health and developmental outcomes for both mother and child.
The Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine
Designed for patients, with guidance from patients, and named after a patient, the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) brings together the diagnostic and out-patient treatment services which were previously dispersed throughout the University of Chicago Medical Center. The DCAM sets the standard for academic medical centers around the country. Patients, physicians, scientists, medical educators and hospital administrators all worked with architects to shape this innovative structure which opened in November, 1996. Hugo Sonnenschein, President of the University of Chicago stated when the building opened that "this extraordinary structure will allow the remarkable people who practice medicine within it to continue the University of Chicago Hospitals' leadership in patient care, as well as medical research and education, for decades to come."
The Center includes 209 oversized (to accommodate family members and physician in training) exam rooms and 62 rooms for outpatient procedures, including five operating rooms for ambulatory surgery. It features two "helical" CT scanners that allow faster, more-detailed imaging and improved 3D reconstruction capabilities, and a state-of-the art echoplanar MRI scanner. More unusual features include a fully digital chest X-ray machine (the only other one in (Chicago is across the street in the University of Chicago's Mitchell Hospital), a dedicated breast-imaging center with computer-assisted diagnosis (the only such device in the world), direct digital linkage between radiology and key clinics, and enhanced facilities for nuclear medicine and for radiation therapy--including three linear accelerators and computerized simulators for precise dose planning and delivery.
The design for the Center for Advanced Medicine reflects an architectural dialog between the traditional Gothic style of the University of Chicago and the modern Miesian tradition of the City of Chicago. The combination reflects the essence of medicine, which brings together miraculous modern technology with the traditional and extremely personal one-on-one encounter between the patient and physician. The emphasis on natural light, colored stone, rich dark woods such as cherry and mahogany, and patterned terrazzo floors highlight for all who enter the warmth and stability of the University of Chicago Hospitals.
The University of Chicago Medical Center
Just one block away from the Biological Sciences Learning Center is The University of Chicago Medical Center which includes Bernard Mitchell Hospital, Chicago Lying In Hospital, Wyler's Children Hospital, and the Center for Advanced Medicine. With over 1,700 inpatient beds, an active outpatient service, and fully staffed state-of the-art facilities, this center provides an excellent resource as the basis for our student's clinical training.
The Hospitals are the major provider of health care for the immediate neighborhood. They also meet community needs through shared service agreements, referral relationships with physicians and hospitals, and continuing medical education classes for five community hospitals. At the tertiary care level, the medical center draws referrals from the entire region, including northern Indiana. Patients with particularly complex or obscure medical problems often travel long distances to the University of Chicago Hospitals for treatment.
The medical center includes many research institutes, among them the National Cancer Research Center; the National Diabetes Research and Training Center; the General Clinical Research Center; and the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Mental Retardation Research Center. Two community-based hospitals, one just north of the loop, Louis A. Weiss, and one just west of the University, MacNeal, provide expanded opportunities in caring for a diverse patient population.
The Maria Shelter Clinic
The Maria Shelter Clinic is a free health clinic led and operated by Pritzker students every Wednesday evening at the Maria Shelter, a home for women and their children. The shelter serves women who are homeless and requires that the residents be drug and alcohol free, committed to learning the skills necessary to obtain a job, and willing to work toward independence. By providing basic health care and health education, students and faculty alike contribute to this endeavor. Medical students, even in their first year, are actively involved in caring for patients. Their responsibilities often include conducting the patient interview, presenting the patient's history and chief complaint to the physician, and participating in the physical exam and assessment.
Washington Park Children's Free Clinic
The Washington Park Children's Free Clinic was created by Pritzker medical students in 1998. It is a free, walk-in clinic for children that is open every Thursday evening. The clinic is staffed by medical students, volunteer physicians, and students of the U of C School of Social Service Administration. Services offered include acute care, well-child check-ups, school physicals, immunizations, developmental screening, and referral services. Washington Park Children's Free Clinic also organizes health fairs and workshops throughout the year for children and parents which highlight important medical concerns in the Washington Park community.
The Biological Sciences Learning Center and Jules F. Knapp Institute for Molecular Medicine
In the Fall of 1993, the combined Biological Sciences Learning Center and the Jules Knapp Institute for Molecular Medicine opened their doors. This $50.5 million dollar facility serves as a tangible linkage between science, teaching, and medicine in achieving our institution's mission. The Learning Center is a state of the art facility which provides faculty and students a place to learn and creatively engage in new methods of teaching using the advanced technology available in this site. The Knapp Institute houses research facilities for immunology, neurobiology, human genetics, molecular cardiology, and molecular oncology.
The Learning Center is comprised of four floors, a lower level, a greenhouse support level, and the greenhouse level at the top of the building. The main entrance opens to an atrium that can be overlooked from the second floor. The atrium area is a gathering area with cafe tables and chairs and soft seating on the lower, first and second floors. Two main auditoriums with state-of-the art audiovisual equipment are on the first floor, as well as the Dean of Students and Master of the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division offices.
The lower level has two tiered lecture halls for classes. State-of-the-art computer classrooms and a computer laboratory with workstations for groups are available for students at the lower level.
There are several different types of rooms throughout the Learning Center. On the second floor. there are six laboratories, two case study rooms, a classroom, and two faculty/student meeting rooms. The case study rooms throughout the Learning Center have tiered seating in a U shape that will encourage discussion. These rooms might be used for smaller classes where discussion is an important component. A cafe is on the second floor as well as additional seating and tables in the atrium.
The third floor has space for the Clinical Pathophysiology course, four common core laboratories and general teaching laboratories. The south end of the third floor has classrooms and faculty/student meeting rooms. There is also a large amount of lounge space on the third floor.
The fourth floor has a gross anatomy suite with locker rooms and showers. There are four laboratories, an aquarium room, preparation and storage rooms, faculty/student meeting rooms, and lounge space. The top of the building contains the greenhouses and greenhouse support space for growth rooms, a potting room, storage, and offices.
The Learning Center quadruples the dedicated student, teaching laboratory, and seminar room space available to the Division's faculty and students. The Learning Center was developed as a "one room schoolhouse" for the biological sciences. It is structured to encourage communication among students at all levels and between students and faculty. The building represents a major commitment to the promotion of the study of the biological sciences at the University of Chicago and its importance nationwide.
Academic Computing
While medical students are not required to have their own computers, they have access to computers in the Biological Sciences Learning Center, the Crerar Science Library, and the University Hospitals. A newly established Computer Testing Center for medical students provides a facility for computerized testing, as well as serving as a computer classroom for computer-assisted learning and general computer use.
As part of a comprehensive e-Curriculum Program, students have access to course and clerkship information via the Web. Each course and clerkship has its own web site containing information on such areas as course objectives, schedules, readings, links to on-line text books and journals, and special instructional technology modules. Several preclerkship courses provide extensive use of instructional technology, including Human Morphology, Clinical Pathophysiology, and Neurobiology.
Clinical Performance Center
The Clinical Performance Center (CPC) at The University of Chicago is a newly renovated, state-of-the-art teaching laboratory where medical students have an opportunity to practice and gain insight into their skills in clinical medicine. Located two blocks from the Basic Science Learning Center, the CPC is a suite of six fully equipped examination rooms where students and "standardized patients" enact a physician-patient encounter in a real time setting.
Standardized patients are individuals who are carefully trained to give consistent, reliable scores of clinical performance; thus, they are "standardized" in much the same way as a well-constructed written examination is standardized to be reliable and valid. At the University of Chicago, standardized patients are used for a variety of educational an evaluative exercises. They have been used to assess basic history-taking and physical examination skills; to teach the mental status examination, domestic violence counseling, and the male and female genital examination; and to assess the interpersonal skills of entering freshman medical students.
Physician educators are involved in all aspects of the standardized patient program to ensure that standardized patients are adequately trained and that scores given by standardized patients are fair and accurate. Expert medical educators and clinicians, who appreciate the added value of "hands on" learning, develop cases and train the standardized patients to portray their roles in the medical encounter.
