University of Chicago Medicine looks ahead to new brand, new hospital

January 23, 2012

The University of Chicago Medical Center, one of the leading academic medical institutions in the country, is introducing a new brand as it prepares to open a modern 10-story hospital on its South Side campus next January.

The launch of the University of Chicago Medicine marks a new era in the institution's decades-long history as it seeks to strengthen the connection between the internationally renowned University of Chicago and its clinical programs. University of Chicago Medicine unifies the promise of compassionate, state-of-the-art patient care with a renewed commitment by its doctors, nurses, medical specialists, scientists, faculty and staff that medicine is at the core of the University's clinical, educational and scientific missions.

"This brand allows us to signal to our patients, referring physicians, and the greater Chicago community the dramatic and exciting changes happening at the University of Chicago and its new state-of-the-art medical facility," said Kenneth Polonsky, MD, dean and executive vice president for Medical Affairs.

The unveiling of the University of Chicago Medicine coincides with the one-year countdown to the opening of the New Hospital Pavilion, a 1.2-million-square-foot hospital that incorporates the latest in technology with in-patient and operating room design, allowing the hospital to continually modify for future technology. The New Hospital Pavilion is a bold symbol of the new brand and the commitment to technical sophistication in science and health care, coupled with impeccable standards of service, patient safety and clinical quality.

The new hospital will continue to foster collaboration with the best minds in medicine from across the University's intellectual spectrum, with the most advanced technology and research to address the greatest challenges in the changing world of health care.

"Our new building is the embodiment of those changes," said University of Chicago Medical Center President Sharon O'Keefe. "With Medicine as our main brand, we make it clear that medicine is what we do, it's who we are and it's where we continue to set the standards -- at the forefront of medicine."

The new hospital project has become an economic engine fueling minority- and women-owned businesses in the Chicago area. As of December 2011, $195.7 million had been awarded and paid in contracts to minority- and women-owned business enterprises, such as material suppliers, construction contractors and professional services firms, and paid in wages to minority and women laborers. The amount of money paid in contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses is more than 49 percent of the total spent for the project.

The University of Chicago Medicine will host a series of events throughout the year to highlight the new hospital leading up to the grand opening in January 2013, including a community open house and events with community leaders from the South Side and elsewhere, city and state legislators, business leaders and philanthropists.

The University of Chicago's direct involvement in health care began in 1927 with the opening of Billings Hospital. The medical center is consistently recognized as a leading provider of sophisticated medical care. University of Chicago physician-scientists performed the first organ transplant and the first bone marrow transplant in animal models, the first successful living-donor liver transplant, the first hormone therapy for cancer and the first successful application of cancer chemotherapy. Its doctor-scientists also discovered REM sleep and were the first to describe many of the stages of sleep. Twelve of the 87 Nobel Prize winners who have been associated with the University of Chicago have won the prize for discoveries related to biology or medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions: University of Chicago Medicine Brand