$99 million medical education and research facility opened

NSW Minister for Health John Della Bosca and Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr Michael Spence have officially opened the University of Sydney's new $99 million Kolling Building at Royal North Shore Hospital, providing a new purpose-built facility for medical researchers and clinical educators.

The ultra-modern building, jointly funded by the University of Sydney and NSW Health, includes seven floors for medical research and new facilities for educating the doctors, nurses and health professionals of the future.

"The Kolling Building is a significant milestone in our commitment to rebuild and revitalise the Royal North Shore Hospital site, and its completion marks the start of a new era in clinical research and education," Mr Della Bosca said.

"This project also demonstrates the capacity of State Government to partner successfully with other institutions, in this case with the University of Sydney, to deliver enhanced facilities that benefit the community."

Royal North Shore Hospital is renowned for its 'bench to bedside' research philosophy, where staff members are engaged in practical research that can be applied to patient care in areas such as cancer, pain management, diabetes and perinatal medicine.

"Opening of the Kolling Building marks a significant new phase of cooperation between North Sydney Health and the University of Sydney," said Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr Michael Spence.

"It is absolutely essential that research in this area is multidisciplinary and that it can be successfully taken from bench to bedside. This world class facility provides the ideal environment to achieve this," he said

The Kolling Building is part of the $950 million redevelopment of Royal North Shore Hospital and community health facility which will be completed by 2013.

The Kolling Building, named in recognition of the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, has its own architectural identity and discrete presence on site.A particularly advanced feature or the building is the sophisticated IT and audiovisual installation, allowing for videoconferencing in most of the large teaching venues.

The building is also designed to provide above-ground connection to clinical treatment areas of the future acute hospital with a bridge link on level 5. A direct connection to the new main hospital building will allow easy flow from the acute care area to the research area for the many staff members engaged in active clinical research.