There's a reason why top university medical centers garner the prestige (and the funding) that they do: research labs + medical school + hospital = optimization of all three units, with ripe opportunities for collaboration, sharing of resources, and recruiting the best medical scientists. So there's always reason to cheer when a major university med center like Ohio State builds new facilities, whether they're clinical or research, because both will support the institution's overall mission and budget. In the case of Ohio State's new James Cancer Center and Solove Research Institute, both patients seeking treatment and scientists doing basic and applied cancer research will benefit from the state-of-the-art building that is rising on the Columbus medical campus right now, with its opening due in 2014. The complex will house the cancer center on 12 stories; the other 8 will comprise the critical care hospital, mechanical equipment and an as yet undetermined floor.
For some background on this massive project (part of a billion-dollar effort called "ProjectOne"), check out our previous blog on the Ohio State University medical expansion. Watch the video below for a by-the-numbers look at what makes the newly renamed Wexler Medical Center so impressive.
[Video courtesy of OSU]
History and habit have a way of thwarting the best attempts at honoring patronage through naming opportunities. Les Wexler gave the university its largest gift ever to build the new medical complex, and Richard J. Solove, another Ohio businessman and proud OSU alum, was a major mover in getting the first cancer hospital funded and opened in 1990. But the specialized cancer hospital will likely always just be called "The James," after a third famous alum and 40-year OSU faculty surgeon, Dr. Arthur G. James, who began to champion the need for a facility just to treat cancer as far back as the 1950's. To put that in perspective, when the original OSU James Center did finally open in 1990, there were only three other hospitals in the United States devoted exclusively to cancer treatment: in Buffalo, Manhattan, and Houston. Even today, The James at OSU is the only freestanding cancer hospital in Ohio.
Should you need a more graphic reminder of how far medical technology has come in a few lifetimes, enjoy these photographs from the OSU historical archives of medical tools: (Can you identify them? Find the answers at OSU's Medical Heritage Center.)
Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. produces top-tier scientific tradeshow events that allow university researchers to meet and network with representative of cutting-edge laboratory supply and technology companies to learn about the latest products in their field. Life science researchers, purchasing agents, and lab managers are invited to attend our late summer BioResearch Product Faire at the Ohio State University Campus on August 3 2012. Click the button below for more information on exhibiting:
