September 28, 1999 - Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati to Name New Education and Conference Center For Albert B. Sabin, MD
CINCINNATI -- A state-of-the-art education and conference center now under construction at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati will be named the Albert B. Sabin Education and Conference Center. The medical center's Board of Trustees approved the proposal yesterday. An official dedication ceremony will follow completion of the building in late summer, 2000.
The center is part of a $155.2 million construction program underway at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati, the largest in the medical center's history. It will occupy a prominent place at the medical center's main entrance on Burnet Avenue. Construction on the education and conference center began with the groundbreaking in October 1998.
The six-story center will include state-of-the-art audiovisual and telecommunications technology, a 300-seat auditorium, breakout meeting rooms, staff offices and all of Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati's libraries. Occupying 132,500 square feet, it will serve as the focal point for Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati's wide-ranging educational programs for doctors-in-training, practicing physicians, researchers and a host of allied health professionals.
"By creating new knowledge and sharing it through education, we fulfill Dr. Sabin's vision to use our expertise to benefit all of the world's children," says James M. Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati. "In naming our center for Dr. Sabin, we hope to inspire all of those we teach to follow his example."
The oral polio vaccine that Albert Sabin, M.D., created at Children's Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati is credited with saving millions of lives around the world and virtually eliminated the crippling disease in the Western Hemisphere. He came to Cincinnati Children's in 1939 and remained for 30 years, creating a body of work that earned him 69 awards and honors before he left in 1970 to become president of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Medical Education and the Albert B. Sabin Education and Conference Center at Children's Hospital Medical Center
Teaching is woven tightly into the fabric of life at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati. Education guarantees that we will continue to share our knowledge of how to improve children's lives, today and tomorrow.
As this region's only source for child health care training for all medical professionals, we've trained more than 2,000 physicians and countless nurses and other health care professionals since 1926. With the opening of the Children's Hospital Research Foundation in 1931, we began a formal affiliation with the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine to ensure that teaching and research would always strengthen pediatric patient care.
Today, about 80 percent of the pediatricians practicing in Greater Cincinnati received their training at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati. Our ongoing training includes one of the nation's largest pediatric residency programs; undergraduate medical and nurse education; graduate training in molecular and developmental biology and genetic counseling; fellowships in virtually every pediatric medical and surgical subspecialty; postgraduate training in psychology, developmental disorders and lab research; clinical pastoral education and employee training.
In addition, Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati sponsors continuing education for faculty, community physicians and nurses, researchers, other health professionals, and parents. Every two years, we sponsor the Rachford Lectures, featuring physicians and scientists from around the world.
The New Albert B. Sabin Education and Conference Center
Improving the environment for teaching and learning is the goal of the new Albert B. Sabin Education and Conference Center, scheduled to open in August 2000 as a centerpiece of Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati's campus.
The center will be one of the first buildings visitors see as they approach the hospital campus from Burnet Avenue. It is part of a major construction project -- currently one of Greater Cincinnati's largest -- to upgrade facilities for education, patient care and research at the Avondale campus.
"The limitations of our current facilities for training, conferences, libraries and family resources make construction of an education center an important strategic investment," said James M. Anderson, Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati's president and CEO. Ground was broken in October 1998 for the new building, which will feature:
- 300-seat auditorium with raised stage
- 132,500 square feet over six floors
- Expanded dining room and food court
- Breakout meeting rooms for small group sessions
- All campus libraries (Pratt Library; Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders library; parent and toy libraries; nursing library) and the Family Resource Center
- Offices for staff who plan educational activities
- Offices for the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children
- State-of-the-art audiovisual equipment to facilitate telehealth/teleconferencing capabilities
The Albert B. Sabin Education and Conference Center will formalize and centralize our educational programs in an expanded facility that's dedicated specifically to education. "The Albert B. Sabin Education and Conference Center will significantly strengthen Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati's ability to meet our important educational mission," says Anderson.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer, jfeuer@chmcc.org
