More than 1,000 donors have given a total of $131 million toward the construction of the Jacobs Medical Center, a 245-bed facility under construction at UC San Diego, school officials announced Thursday.
More than half of the money, $75 million, was donated by Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan, four years ago, according to UCSD.
The 10-story, nearly 510,000-square-foot medical center is expected to carry a price tag of $839 million. It will include the A. Vassiliadis Family Hospital for Advanced Surgery, The Pauline and Stanley Foster Hospital for Cancer Care and the Hospital for Women and Infants.
“Jacobs Medical Center is part of a multibillion-dollar university investment in the future of health care for the region,” said Dr. David Brenner, vice chancellor for Health Sciences and dean of the UCSD School of Medicine. “I want to thank all of the donors who have helped make this extraordinary medical center a reality.”
School officials said the concept of the medical facility is to provide patients with easier access to all of the UCSD Health System’s treatment options. Physicians at the Jacobs Medical Center will also work in concert with the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center and Shiley Eye Center.
Irwin Jacobs said the UCSD School of Medicine was just starting when he arrive in 1966, and there wasn’t even a hospital, “so it’s very exciting to make Jacobs Medical Center possible.”
“More and more, we’re learning how to bring results from basic research in biology and engineering to medicine, and to the clinic,” he said. “I think this medical center is going to show how effective that can be. The innovations will spread out from San Diego, and go all around the world.”
San Diego philanthropist Carol Vassiliadis gave $12 million to support the advanced surgical center, which will provide robotics-based procedures, micro-surgeries and other advanced techniques, according to UCSD.
Pauline Foster, whose late husband Stanley built the Hang Ten clothing line into a household name, gave $7.5 million for a 108-bed cancer treatment center. Both Stanley and Pauline’s brother died of cancer.
—City News Service