Fred & Pamela Buffet Cancer Center fosters a coordinated effort

courtesy of HDR © Corey Gaffer

The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the brainchild of Nebraska Medicine, is designed for integrated care. The center’s layout places researchers working in laboratories just steps away from clinicians who are caring for patients.

The collaboration, communication and problem-solving fostered in special translational “knowledge-transfer” zones inspires transdisciplinary integration and helps to accelerate individualized patient treatments based on the latest research and a patient’s own cancer cells.

Seven floors of the research tower are dedicated to different types of cancer and help to attract the world’s foremost scientists. For patients who are receiving care, a new 108-bed inpatient tower sits adjacent to a multidisciplinary outpatient center where patients go for diagnosis and treatment.

Spaces within the center are designed to enhance the patient experience through physical and emotional connections, including unique environments such as the Chihuly Sanctuary and the Leslie Healing Gardens. The glass sanctuary and outdoor garden serve as places of respite for patients, families and staff to reduce anxiety and promote healing.

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