After opening only a year ago, the U’s Health Care Clinical Neurosciences and Spine Center has already received a high-level award, ranking it next to centers at Ivy League universities.
The New Media Consortium Center of Excellence Award ranks neuroscience centers across the United States for staff, clinical work, business management, facilities and technology.
“Anybody who gets a three or four is a Neurosciences Center of Excellence, and we’re up there with Stanford University, the University of California San Francisco and John Hopkins (University),” said Candice Gourley, the center’s director.
The higher levels dictate that a center has dedicated leadership and government, comprehensive care and specialty facilities.
Center spokesperson Dennis Jolley said the U has worked for the past three years to open the center through U Health Care and moved into its new building in September.
“It’s hard to receive that high of award in your first year,” Jolley said. “And it’s because we have comprehensive care. For patients, it’s one-stop shopping. We have neurosurgeons, a full range of specialties; we are leaders in stroke care, all the cerebral conditions, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and more.”
To apply for the award, the center filled out a survey explaining what facilities and technology it has, and then the award designees checked if the center reported accurately.
“We’re moving fast,” Gourley said. “When this came up, it was one of the things I wanted to do, because I realized we had the components to become a level-four center.”
And the center plans to grow more.
Gourley said they recently opened an MRI machine that is less claustrophobic with better diagnostic quality. The center is also increasing its number of beds, including another 13 beds in the neurocritical care unit that give doctors 360-degree access with beds not set directly against a wall. The center will also add an additional 13 all-private beds on the third floor of the UHospital, which is connected to the center.
By July 1, the center will open an endovascular suite, which neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons will use for stroke care and other needs.
The center is also expanding since Norman Foster, a professor at the U’s Alzheimer’s Center, advocated for the creation of a Brain Health Learning Center. The addition will help patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other cognitive and movement disorders meet with other patients and receive support through groups.
Gourley said Foster is requiring all patients to become involved in the learning center, which will be housed in Research Park.
“It’s part of the treatment plan for all of his patients with cognitive disorders,” Gourley said. “It’s (a) library of resources with computers patients and families can access.”