Medical College plans for the first clinical building in its 106-year history

Taking part in groundbreaking ceremonies for Cornell Weill Medical College's new Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building in New York City are, from left, Sanford Weill, chairman of Weill Cornell's Board of Overseers; Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman; Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Dr. Antonio Gotto, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College; Kevin Brine, chairman of the "Advancing the Clinical Mission" Capital Campaign; Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Richard Lobell

By Jonathan Weil

Weill Cornell Medical College broke ground May 25 for its new Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building, the 106-year-old institution's first clinical facility. The 13-story, $230 million medical complex, the centerpiece of Weill Cornell's capital campaign, will serve as the new focus for patient care and education, as well as the flagship building for Cornell in New York City.

A comfortable, modern and aesthetically pleasing environment designed to make the ambulatory patient experience pleasant and efficient, the building will house numerous specialty clinical programs, as well as world-class research and medical education. Located at 1305 York Ave. at East 70th St., it is scheduled to open in the fall of 2006.

The groundbreaking ceremony included remarks by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

"This building represents the essence of Cornell -- a place of higher education and intellectual capital bar none, a source of health and wellness for all, and a program that will shape the face of medicine for decades to come," said Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman. "As the university's flagship building in New York City, it will be home to both interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration."

The new building "is the centerpiece of the most ambitious capital campaign in the history of our medical school," said Sanford I. Weill, chairman of the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell. "The planning and fundraising for the building have been a true tour de force and an exercise in intense collaboration requiring hundreds of hours of manpower."

Said Antonio M. Gotto Jr., M.D., the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell, "This new building will further Weill Cornell's tri-partite mission of research, teaching and patient care. By consolidating many clinical practices under one roof, patients will have a central location to obtain needed medical services. And, by situating medical college students and physician-scientists closer to clinical care, the building will be a model of medical education and will facilitate the kind of clinical research that leads to medical breakthroughs."

The building will offer an array of special amenities not commonly found in healthcare institutions. The total experience of visiting the doctor will be more streamlined, seamless, and efficient -- from scheduling an appointment, to locating the doctor's office, the doctor's visit itself, and any follow-up care. Health-care professionals will be on hand to help patients every step of the way. Weill Cornell physicians managed more than 700,000 ambulatory encounters in 2003.

A central feature of the new building will be the Patient Welcome Resource Center, offering a comfortable, spacious place for patients and families to rest between appointments. The center also will host health education seminars that will be free and open to the general public.

Additional plans include valet parking, and full use of a clinical information system and electronic medical records by all physicians in the building.

Key clinical programs, such as cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology and radiology, will be expanded and housed in the new facility. The Department of Radiology will occupy an entire floor.

The new center will offer medical students first-class facilities and first-hand experiences observing and participating in real-life medical situations. The building will feature an innovative Clinical Skills Center, a 10,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art teaching facility in which students can practice clinical skills in a controlled environment with standardized "actor" patients, and begin training in patient interactions early in their education. A self-study lab will make available virtual reality technology and computer-controlled mannequins simulating various conditions in order to allow students to work individually on a range of medical procedures.

The new building also will foster opportunities for scientific collaboration among the college's researchers by providing them with additional space and the latest technology. Occupying the 13th floor, the new, multidisciplinary Institute for Computational Biomedicine (ICB) specializes in the development of research technologies employing mathematical models, physics and high-speed computing to analyze tremendous volumes of scientific data to test hypotheses about the structure and function of the human body.

The new building's designers are Polshek Partnership Ballinger Architects, a 120-person firm. Among other New York City projects, Polshek is responsible for the Carnegie Hall renovation, the American Museum of Natural History's Rose Center for Earth and Space, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art renovation and expansion.