Physician-researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Lung Science and Health (CLSH) have a lot to be excited about in the New Year. Most notably, the center will be getting a new clinic and an expanded mission that emphasizes clinical care as well as research.
The center’s newly remodeled clinic space will open in January 2013 on the third floor (ground level) of the Phillips-Wangensteen Building on the University of Minnesota campus—moving up one floor from its old space, which it shared with other clinics.
The new clinic will not only offer renovated exam rooms, but it also will be dedicated to lung health exclusively and be more accessible for patients.
“[The clinic’s] focus is specifically on lung disease and lung health,” says Jordan Dunitz, M.D., director of the new clinic and the University’s Cystic Fibrosis Center. The goal, he says, is to offer better patient education and greater access to more personalized, innovative care.
A “Wall of Discovery” display will be installed in the new clinic shortly after the January opening to showcase the University’s ability to turn research discoveries into treatments for patients. “The center is more than just the clinic,” says CLSH director Marshall Hertz, M.D., emphasizing the the center’s dual research and care missions.
“We’re all trying to improve the care for patients through research,” says Dunitz, who hopes that greater public awareness of the center’s work will lead to more philanthropic support of lung research.
“We’re hoping that philanthropy will play a bigger role [in research] going forward,” he says. “The way to get research off the ground is with philanthropy.”
