In the first-ever large-scale partnership of a major New York academic medical center with a community-based AIDS service organization, the New York Hospital's Center for Special Studies (CSS), an AlDS-care facility; the Cornell Clinical Trials Unit (CCTU), a research center for HIV treatments; and Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) have announced plans to establish the New York Hospital Chelsea Center, an HIV Care Center in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. This partnership firmly establishes the commitment of both New York-Cornell and GMHC to providing state-of-the-art care, prevention and research for people living with HIV and links GMHC's new David Geffen Center for HIV Prevention and Health Education to a clinical-care facility.
Dr. David B. Skinner, president of the New York Hospital, said, "This new partnership will allow New York-Cornell's AIDS treatment center, the Center for Special Studies, to extend its reach and provide the same high-quality, comprehensive primary care it is known for to many more people with HIV/AIDS in a community setting." Center for Special Studies clients will have the added advantage of GMHC's spectrum of services -- including crisis intervention, intensive case management, legal and financial advocacy, nutritional counseling, recreational classes, treatment and prevention information and counseling, and other social services. Through GMHC, clients will also have access to experimental treatments from the medical center's HIV research center, the Cornell Clinical Trials Unit (CCTU).
"New York-Cornell's philosophy about HIV/AIDS treatment is to provide state-of-the-art continuous and comprehensive medical care in a non-institutional setting with a relaxed and gentle atmosphere," said Dr. Jonathan Jacobs, medical director of the Center for Special Studies at New York-Cornell. "We plan to replicate both the feeling and function of CSS at GMHC's new site."
In addition to its dedication to delivering superior health care to patients, New York-Cornell has been at the forefront of AIDS research since the epidemic began.
In 1988, the medical center was designated as an AIDS Clinical Trials Unit by the National Institutes of Health and, in 1994, joined the American Foundation for AIDS Research's Community-Based Clinical Trials Network.
A full-scale, community-based and federally funded research center is planned for the GMHC partnership.