Updated: 4:47 p.m.
Cleveland Clinic will expand into Las Vegas courtesy of a $100 million donation of the Frank Gehry-designed Lou Ruvo Brain Institute.
Ruvo is presenting the building as a gift to the Clinic, which will then operate the facility in Las Vegas, according to a press release. The center fights diseases including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s through both research and treatment. It will house clinical space, a diagnostic center, neuroimaging rooms, physician offices and laboratories devoted to clinical research.
The practice could begin seeing patients this summer.
“Our goal is to create a national, and ultimately global, brain center,” Dr. Michael Modic, chairman of the Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute, told The Las Vegas Review Journal.
Media say that the Clinic has been negotiating with the Ruvo Institute since November, but things seems to have come to a head with Clinic executives traveled to Las Vegas in the first week of Februrary. Inquiries the last two weeks by MedCity News about the Las Vegas donation were not answered.
A half-dozen physicians will work on site and will consult with neurological specialists in Cleveland, according to The Las Vegas Sun. The Review Journal said the center is hiring staff and some member of the Clinic in Cleveland could move West.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Up to today we were the tourist destination … we are now going into the major leagues as a world-class city with world-class medicine, world-class medicine and world-class doctors coming to us,” Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
Goodman said he would bet Clinic Chief Executive Dr. Toby Cosgrove that the innovation at the Las Vegas brain institute would find a cure one of the neurodegenerative diseases it will research.
The Sun describes a palatial, cutting edge facility: “Patients will be greeted by valets and taken immediately to their rooms. A calming atmosphere will be created through the use of natural light and soft colors. … All of this will be housed in a Gehry-designed pavilion with an undulating roof and 550 interlocking stainless steel pieces, no two alike. In addition to a resume that includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Gehry happens to be a tireless advocate of research into brain disorders, which makes his participation a natural fit.”
The Institute will include and “Museum of the Mind,” an interactive learning center focused on the mind and brain; a public café and catering kitchen operated by the Wolfgang Puck organization; conference rooms; office space; and a 500-seat Activities Life Center for events, seminars, conferences, and forums, according to a Cleveland Clinic press release.
The Clinic had in past years considered a move to Las Vegas, but nothing significantly materialized. In 2005, it partnered with Canyon Ranch to provide wellness care. And Vegas officials had hoped to lure the Clinic in 2006, but nothing materialized.
The project fits in the Clinic’s vision of a global health-care brand for the health system. Plain Dealer architecture critic Steven Litt called the Clinic name alongside the Ghery building “might-be termed ‘co-branding.’ ”
