National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

10 Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892
(301) – 496-4000
http://www.cc.nih.gov/

The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center is a clinical research facility where physicians examine a broad range of illnesses and health issues. Only patients who have the kind or stage of an illness that is under investigation are admitted; however, those patients receive their treatment for free. The physicians and researchers working at the Clinical Center strive to develop trials that will allow them to translate their lab discoveries as quickly as possible into approaches for diagnosing, treating and preventing disease.

The Clinical Center consists of two facilities. The 14 story Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center is more than 2.5 million square feet. It contains 15 outpatient clinics and a Laboratory Medicine Department. The second facility, the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, which opened in 2005, is a 870,000-square-foot facility housing 234 beds, 82 day hospital stations and more than 1,600 laboratories for basic research.

The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center is the world's largest hospital devoted to clinical research. Numerous medical breakthroughs have resulted from the trials undertaken here, including:

• The first chemotherapy cures for childhood leukemia and Hodgkin's disease;
• The first controlled trials of lithium use in depression;
• The first computerized hospital information system used to facilitate clinical research;
• The first use of gene therapy;
• The first use of AZT as a treatment for AIDS.

Areas of clinical study at the Clinical Center include Aging, Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Allergy, Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Cancer, Child Health, Chronic Pain, Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Dental and Orofacial Disorders, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Eye Disorders, Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Medical Genetics, Mental Health, Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

As well as participating in clinical studies, patients at the Clinical Center receive excellent treatment for their illnesses and health problems. This is a fully accredited hospital with modern facilities. There are more than 1,200 doctors, dentists and Ph.D. researchers on staff, as well 660 nurses and 570 allied health care professionals. In addition, numerous guest scientists from around the world participate in various Clinical Center activities. A number of Nobel Prize winners have operated clinical trials at the Clinical Center.

The Clinical Center treats more than 100,000 outpatients each year, as well as admitting 7,000 inpatients. Since 1953, more than 350,000 patients from all 50 states and numerous countries around the world have received care at the Clinical Center.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center is one of several hospitals in the Washington DC area. For your convenience, the Abelson Law Offices Website has a directory of other Washington DC health care facilities.

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