Mayo Clinic Marks Milestone With Innovative Projects

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

The Mayo Clinic is building a $182 million proton-beam therapy center adjacent to its Phoenix hospital. The first treatment rooms are expected to open by 2016, followed by additional rooms the next year. Additionally, the non-profit clinic plans to add a medical-school branch campus in Scottsdale in 2015, according to AZCentral.com. Each project will create about 500 construction jobs.

The 100,000-square-foot proton-beam therapy facility will be the first of its kind in the Southwest and one of only 10 in the entire country. It is expected to give a major boost to the Mayo Clinic’s Phoenix campus and to the area’s healthcare industry.

The Mayo Clinic broke ground on the facility in December of 2011. Scottsdale-based Hunt Construction Group is the general contractor and AECOM of Minneapolis is the architect for the project, according to ENR Southwest.

The publication adds that the new proton-beam therapy program employs intensity modulated proton therapy, a technology that uses pencil-beam scanning. Proton-beam therapy is far more precise than conventional radiation treatment in destroying cancerous cells without damaging surrounding healthy tissue, said Dr. Wyatt Decker, vice president & chief executive for the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, reported AZCentral.com.

Funding for the project will come from the Mayo Clinic’s capital budget and donations. During the past 25 years, the institution has grown its Arizona staff to 470 physicians and scientists, along with almost 5,000 additional employees, on campuses in Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Architect’s rendering of the new proton-beam therapy facility courtesy of the Mayo Clinic