For Release: November 3, 2006
Contact: DMS Communications (603) 650-1492 or Sue Knapp 603-646-3661

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Plans for C. Everett Koop Medical Science Complex Announced

Hanover, NH—Dartmouth Medical School, in partnership with Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, has announced plans to develop the C. Everett Koop Medical Science Complex, a visionary new translational and clinical research facility, on the campus of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, N.H.


From left: DMS Dean Stephen P. Spielberg, Acting Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital President Nancy A. Formella, Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Dartmouth President James Wright, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic President Thomas A. Colacchio

The naming of the planned complex honors the former US surgeon general, a 1937 graduate of Dartmouth College who is the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Professor of Surgery and senior scholar of the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth Medical School.

The naming was formally announced Nov. 2 by Dartmouth President James Wright, Dartmouth Medical School Dean Stephen P. Spielberg, Acting Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital President Nancy A. Formella, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic President Thomas A. Colacchio.


C. Everett Koop Medical Science Complex

Connected to the existing Borwell Research Building on the south side of the DHMC campus, the complex will bring together important research and exceptional academic programs in close proximity to clinical and patient care areas in specially designed environments intended to foster collaboration and discovery. Construction of the complex is planned to begin in late summer 2007, with initial occupancy in fall 2009. The project is expected to cost approximately $140 million and encompass 283,085 gross square feet. The medical school, college and medical center are currently working to raise $50 million to support funding for the complex.

"The new Koop Complex represents our view of a key element of the future of biomedical science and health care delivery. It is our goal to create an environment to speed the conversion of basic discovery to change in health care practice," says Spielberg. "The design follows its function. It provides a space for close, physical juxtaposition of research, education and patient care, and this will hopefully lead to a new era of more thoughtful flow of knowledge from the bench to the bedside to the community and back."

DMS recently received a Clinical and Translational Science Award planning grant from the National Institutes of Health that will help fund a clinical and translational research center and support the vision of the Koop Complex as a whole.

The Koop Complex is comprised of two wings. One wing, a new translational research building, will house an expanded scientific investigation effort, with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary problem solving in areas including neuroscience, cardiovascular science, immunology, infectious diseases and other evolving areas. Open laboratories will bring together investigators from different home departments. The second wing will house Dartmouth's renowned Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences, where investigators analyze health care delivery, looking to optimize care at the national and local level, and will evaluate new interventions by interacting closely with bench scientists.

The wings will connect to Borwell through LeBaron Commons, a multi-level atrium designed to create informal and organized spaces for valuable interactions between people and educational space for teaching and learning. The commons is named for Francis E. LeBaron, a 1931 graduate of the Massachusetts College of Osteopathy and a 1934 graduate of the Middlesex College of Medicine and Surgery who was a self-taught researcher with a passion for learning and innovation. His son, Dean F. LeBaron, provided a $5 million gift for the facility. Dean LeBaron is a venture capitalist who splits his time between living in the Lake Sunapee Region of New Hampshire and the Walensee region in Switzerland.

Spielberg adds, "We want to position Dartmouth as a leader in designing the future of health care through excellence in science at all levels. The new facilities are crucial to attracting and retaining the best faculty and students, and positioning Dartmouth Medical School as a leader in clinical and translational sciences."

-DMS-

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