Rich, Collaborative Environment Advances Patient Care

UC San Diego Health Sciences has entered a period of remarkable growth, one that will strengthen its position as a destination academic medical center. In addition to the recent addition of the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center and Medical Education & Telemedicine Building, plans are underway for the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute building (projected to open in 2015) and the Jacobs Medical Center (with a planned 2016 opening.)

The location of these new facilities – in the heart of UC San Diego’s booming life sciences research and teaching campus – strategically positions UC San Diego Health System to further integrate patient care with research. It builds upon UC San Diego’s legacy of bench-to-bedside collaboration among scientists, clinical researchers, physicians and trainees.

The addition of the Jacobs Medical Center to the already thriving UC San Diego La Jolla campus will create the epicenter of advanced clinical care and pioneer new ways of advancing health, such as patient safety and leading-edge technology. It will become a hub for translational medicine and a tangible symbol of UC San Diego Health System’s commitment to compassionate patient care, discovery and delivery of the next generation therapies. The Jacobs Medical Center will be the catalyst that attracts multidisciplinary endeavors to the hub and a magnet for talented researchers, physicians and nurses.

UC San Diego is creating additional opportunities to facilitate biomedical research, drug discovery and health care delivery. The Clinical and Translational Research Institute, the Institute for Engineering in Medicine and the Institute for Genomic Medicine were created in recent years to synergize the interactions between UC San Diego Health Sciences, the Jacobs School of Engineering, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Calit2, the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Division of Biological Sciences, allowing researchers to cross major scientific thresholds on a daily basis, particularly in the areas of bioengineering, genomics and regenerative medicine – of particular relevance in a new era of personalized medicine.

The only academic medical center in San Diego, UC San Diego Health System boasts  combined clinical and research strengths in major specialty areas including cardiovascular care and advanced surgery, along with clinical and basic cancer research and treatment at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center – the region’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center –  and the Shiley Eye Center, which provides comprehensive eye care, advanced diagnostics and sophisticated surgery, along with basic research into the underlying causes of and treatment for eye disease and blindness.

U.S. News & World Report consistently recognizes UC San Diego Health System among the nation’s best, ranking it as the No. 1 health system in San Diego in the magazine’s first-ever “Best Hospital” metro rankings.  It is also the region’s only adult hospital ranked among the best in the nation in six specialty areas (cancer, diabetes, nephrology, orthopedics, psychiatry and pulmonology) in the 2011 “Best Hospitals” issue.

UC San Diego Health System is also nationally recognized for its information technology initiatives, as well as an advanced infrastructure that seamlessly integrates clinical systems to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivery and positively impacted patient safety and outcomes. In addition, this year UC San Diego was named one of the top 10 institutions in the world for medicine by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), rankings, published last week by London’s The Guardian.

 “Our goal is to become a destination health system that addresses the most urgent health needs for the people of San Diego, the nation, and the world, while also attracting the best and brightest physicians, researchers and surgeons to our faculty,” said Dr. David A. Brenner, Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine. “By building on our reputation for clinical, research and teaching excellence – particularly in core areas such as surgery, cardiovascular and cancer care – we are well on our way to achieving this vision.”