The University of Chicago Medical Center, branded as UChicago Medicine, is a nationally ranked academic medical center located in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago. It is the flagship campus for The University of Chicago Medicine system and was established in 1898. Affiliated with and located on the University of Chicago campus, it also serves as the teaching hospital for Pritzker School of Medicine. Primary medical facilities on campus include the Center for Care and Discovery, Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital, and Comer Children's Hospital.

About

UChicago Medicine comprises The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine; The University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division, a section committed to scientific discovery; and The University of Chicago Medical Center. Thirteen Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine have been affiliated with The University of Chicago Medicine.

University of Chicago Medicine physicians are members of The University of Chicago Physicians Group, which includes about 900 physicians and covers the full array of medical and surgical specialties. The physicians are faculty members of the Pritzker School of Medicine.

These organizations are headed by Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, and executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago, and Thomas Jackiewicz, president of the University of Chicago Health System.

History

The University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences, is an academic medical institution founded as part of the University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences in 1927 when it first opened to patients. Opening in the fall of that year, the building comprised the Abbott Memorial Hall and the Albert Merritt Billings Hospital, a 215-bed facility.

Since its inception, University of Chicago Medicine has been home to numerous landmark discoveries in biomedical science. In the 1960s, researchers at the University of Chicago were among the first to characterize proinsulin, the precursor molecule to insulin, providing key insights into hormone biosynthesis and diabetes. In the 1970s, Eugene Goldwasser, a biochemist at the university, identified erythropoietin, the hormone responsible for regulating red blood cell production. After sharing the small quantities he had isolated with researchers at Amgen, the hormone was later mass-produced using recombinant DNA technology and became a widely used treatment for anemia. The institution has also made foundational contributions to cancer biology and treatment, including the demonstration by Charles Huggins that prostate cancer is hormonally driven, work that earned the Nobel Prize, and the identification by Janet Rowley of chromosomal translocations in leukemia, establishing the genetic basis of cancer and paving the way for targeted therapies. In addition, modern sleep science traces important roots to the university through the work of Nathaniel Kleitman, who, along with his student Eugene Aserinsky, first identified rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in 1953 using electroencephalography.

Photomechanical print of the Albert Merritt Billings Memorial Hospital, Chicago, by G. Haln. October 1929

In 1988, The University of Chicago Medicine decided to close its adult trauma center. At the time, the decision was made because the trauma center was losing a large amount of money and taking away resources from other specialties.

Between 2005 and 2009, former First Lady Michelle Obama served as vice-president for Community and External Affairs. Obama resigned the position in 2009 as she and then President Barack Obama prepared their move to the White House.

A campaign for a new adult level 1 trauma center surfaced after the death of Damian Turner, an 18-year-old who was killed by gunshot in August 2010. Hospital representatives have said that building an adult trauma center would compromise the other distinct and critically important services for the community, such as The South Side's only level 1 trauma center for children, the South Side's only burn unit, its emergency departments for adults and children and the neonatal intensive care unit. Protesters have suggested that The University of Chicago should not be seeking financial support to attract the presidential library of Barack Obama without first committing to reopening an adult trauma facility.

The Center for Care and Discovery (CCD) opened in 2013 and to date serves as the flagship hospital for UChicago Medicine. The 10-story facility has 436 beds in all private rooms, 52 intensive care beds, 9 suites for advanced imaging and interventional procedures and 23 operating rooms designed to accommodate hybrid and robotic procedures.

In December 2015, the university announced that it would be restarting the level 1 adult trauma center at the hospital. Furthermore, the university announced plans to expand The University of Chicago Medical Center. The center now includes 188 additional beds and has increased the hospital to its biggest size since the 1970s. The expansion was in response to an increased demand for bed space, as the medical center had been operating near capacity.

On December 29, 2017, a new adult emergency room connected to the Center for Care and Discovery opened for patient care. On May 1, 2018, the new Level 1 trauma center officially opened. The center is expected to serve between 2,700 and 4,000 patients a year and is the South Side's first Level I trauma center since the late 1980s. The remainder of the expansion is expected to be finished by 2022.

In 2023, UChicago Medicine began construction on an $815 million, 575,000-square-foot cancer center on its Hyde Park campus, expected to open in 2027. The facility, set to be the only freestanding cancer care and research center in Illinois, will integrate clinical care and research in a single location.

In 2025, UChicago Medicine announced the launch of a national cancer network, beginning with a partnership with AdventHealth in the Kansas City region, expanding access to advanced cancer treatments and clinical trials.

As of 2025, National Institute of Health research funding reached more than $266 million annually.

Composition

University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital

University of Chicago Medicine consists of:

  • Center for Care and Discovery, the primary adult inpatient care facility (opened in 2013 at a cost of $700 million)
  • Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital, adult inpatient care facility which houses the Burn and Complex Wound Center
  • Comer Children's Hospital, including the university's Pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center
  • University of Chicago Medicine Family Birth Center, a maternity and women's hospital
  • Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine, an outpatient care facility
  • Pritzker School of Medicine
  • The Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery (KCBD)
  • The University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (in the main campus and other locations)
  • UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial, Harvey, Illinois UChicago Medicine at Ingalls - Calumet City UChicago Medicine at Ingalls - Crestwood UChicago Medicine at Ingalls - Flossmoor UChicago Medicine Outpatient Center at Ingalls - Harvey UChicago Medicine at Ingalls - South Holland UChicago Medicine at Ingalls - Tinley Park
  • UChicago Medicine AdventHealth UChicago Medicine AdventHealth - Bolingbrook UChicago Medicine AdventHealth - Glendale Heights UChicago Medicine AdventHealth - Hinsdale UChicago Medicine AdventHealth - La Grange
  • regional physician offices located throughout the Chicago area

Recognition

The 2010 rankings by U.S. News & World Report included the following 11 adult medical specialties: digestive disorders (6), cancer (15), endocrinology (18), kidney disease (21), respiratory disorders (21), heart (27), urology (28), geriatrics (29), gynecology (34), neurology and neurosurgery (36) and, ear, nose, and throat (38). Until 2012, it was the only hospital in Illinois ever to be included on the magazine's "Honor Roll" of the best hospitals in the United States, and has made this coveted list 10 times.

External links

  • at the