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CLAUDE MOORE FOUNDATION GIVES U.Va. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE $12.5 MILLION FOR EDUCATION BUILDING

Gift Reflects Greater Reliance on Private Support for Capital Projects at UVa

The Claude Moore Charitable Foundation of Fairfax has made a $12.5 million challenge gift to University of Virginia School of Medicine for a state-of-the-art medical education building.  The commitment, which is the largest private gift ever received by U.Va.’s medical school for a building project, requires matching funds.  The University will need to raise the other half of the cost for the $25 million facility. 

“This facility will enable us to impart the increasingly complex skills our medical students need to become effective and compassionate physicians and to pursue new advances in patient care,” said University President John T. Casteen III.  “We owe the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation and its trustees a tremendous debt of gratitude.  With this generous challenge, they will inspire other benefactors to join us in sustaining a tradition of excellence in medical education that was part of Jefferson’s founding vision for the institution."

The 85,000-square-foot structure will provide new technologies and flexible teaching spaces to support innovative medical instruction, including training in emergency medicine for students, residents, and a number of the state’s emergency medical technicians.  When completed, it will offer specialized multimedia classrooms with Internet connections and other technological tools.  It also will contain video-equipped exam rooms that allow students to review and analyze their interactions with patients.

Three foundation trustees are University alumni: Peter Arntson (A&S ’60, Law ’65), Leigh Middleditch (A&S ’51, Law ‘57) and Jesse Wilson (A&S ’56, Law ’63).  Middleditch, who served with Wilson on the U.Va. Board of Visitors, noted: “Dr. Moore was a man of firm opinions, and he understood the importance of education in the practice of medicine.  We believe this superb, high-tech medical education facility will continue to attract the best and brightest students and faculty to the School of Medicine.  Given Dr. Moore’s interest in the medical school, we are confident he would be proud to have his name associated with a building that will play such an essential role in the daily life of the institution.”

The building’s Medical Simulation Training Center will offer a safe and cost-effective way for medical students, residents and emergency medical technicians to hone essential skills.  “Human patient simulation is a computer-driven model that provides hands-on experience for students to learn in a true-to-life setting,” said Dr. Marcus Martin, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine.  “It provides opportunities for interdisciplinary team training and helps decrease medical errors in the way that aviation training reduces pilot errors.”

Martin pointed out that, in addition to the challenge gift, the foundation has provided $180,000 to purchase patient simulators and provide specialized training on their use.  The simulators are lifelike, computerized mannequins that can be programmed to exhibit standard medical symptoms and to respond appropriately to treatment.  They are especially beneficial to emergency medicine students, who must build the confidence to perform in high-pressure situations without risk to patients.

“The Claude Moore Foundation’s magnificent gift will create a learning environment that supports the most advanced, 21st-century medical training available for future physicians,” said Dr. Arthur Garson Jr., vice president and dean of the School of Medicine.  “This building and the programs it houses will truly be models for the U.S.  Now, more than ever, we are relying on private philanthropy to help finance large capital projects.  This gift sets a wonderful example.”

The Claude Moore Charitable Foundation was established in 1987 to enhance educational opportunities for young people in the Commonwealth of Virginia and elsewhere.  It continues a tradition of philanthropy established by the late Dr. Claude Moore, a longtime radiologist in Washington, D.C., and a 1916 graduate of the U.Va. School of Medicine. When he died in 1991 at the age of 98, Moore was the University’s oldest medical alumnus.

Previously, Moore gave $300,000 to the University for its health sciences library, which bears his name.  Later, in 1992, with grants totaling $400,000 from the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, the Board of Visitors established the Claude Moore Professorship in his memory.  Dr. Diane Snustad, professor of gerontology, currently holds this chair. 

December 11, 2003