World-class patient care joins with world-class research at new Ambulatory Care Center

The view from the top floor of the new Ambulatory Care Center is expansive and breathtaking, encompassing Lake Quinsigamond to the east and the busy campus green to the north. But perhaps more impressive is the view into the building, where patient-centered care is delivered and research is conducted into some of the most troubling diseases of our time.

Housing UMass Medical School’s Conquering Diseases Clinical Research Center and UMass Memorial Health Care’s four Centers of Excellence, the 258,000-square-foot ACC is alive with activity: doctors, nurses, coordinators, diagnostic technicians, statisticians and researchers working together in a new model of academic medicine that combines world-class patient care with world-class research to benefit the health of residents across Central New England and beyond.

Although patients were welcomed into the building a few weeks ago—to the Diabetes, Cancer, Orthopedics and Heart and Vascular Centers of Excellence—a ceremonial ribbon cutting to be held at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 provides an important opportunity for both the Medical School and UMass Memorial to reflect on the successful creation of this state-of-the-art facility and what it represents. Amid the rapid pace of clinical care—the ACC will accommodate more than 183,000 patient visits each year—and the considerable momentum built up by the research enterprise, it is appropriate to pause a moment and celebrate.

“We take very seriously our responsibility to care for more than one million people in Central Massachusetts," said Michael F. Collins, MD, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and senior vice president for the Health Sciences. “This building is a potent symbol of the strategic commitment our institutions have to discover and transform knowledge into health, and to improve the lives of those for whom we have the privilege to care, now and into the future.”

The Medical School and UMass Memorial communities are invited to the ribbon cutting.

For more information about the clinical services available at the ACC, visit www.umassmemorial.org/MedicalCenterIP.cfm?id=5280.