Healthcare & Medical Research
Piper’s Commitment
Quality, accessible healthcare and disease prevention are essential for all residents
- Quality, accessible care is acutely important for Maricopa County residents at three critical stages–early childhood, adolescence and later life.
- Limited access to preventive healthcare signals long-term problems with chronic diseases.
Personalized medicine, biosignatures and the promise of cost-effective healthcare
- Arizona has become a center for biomedical research and biomedical enterprises and attracts world-renowned clinical and research experts in biomedicine.
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University are at the center of international research focused on personalized medicine.
Our Approach and What We Fund
1 Improve Facilities for Children, Adolescents and Older Adults
Capital investments such as expanded children’s emergency rooms and neonatal intensive care units bring improved healthcare.
Enhancing geriatric facilities directly advances the quality of healthcare for older adults.
2 Better Trained Healthcare Workforce
Integrating child development principles and practices into pediatric medicine magnifies the effectiveness of children’s healthcare. The model Healthy Steps program successfully teaches pediatric residents about childhood development requirements not taught in the typical medical curriculum.
Training in geriatrics and end-of-life care expands perspectives beyond traditional medical models. Hospice of the Valley creates palliative medicine curricula for medical students, residents and the hospital care team. The Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovations trains a new generation of nurses to serve older adults.
3 Increased Access to Basic Healthcare
Uninsured and underinsured people and families require preventive and acute health services easily accessible to their neighborhoods and communities. Mobile medical vans and free-standing community health clinics serve this need. Mobile units like Mission of Mercy medical vans circulate in Maricopa County, and the Virginia G. Piper Medical and Dental Clinics at St. Vincent de Paul offer free medical services in areas of most need.
4 Center for Research and Healthcare Policy in Personalized Medicine
Special Trust Investments: The Partnership for Personalized Medicine, now better known as The Center for Sustainable Health Research Center, is making significant advances through a collaboration of TGen, the ASU Biodesign Institute and the Fred G. Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
Foremost researchers and faculty at Biodesign Institute and TGen, including Nobel laureate Dr. Leland Hartwell, proteomics researcher Dr. Joshua LaBaer and policy specialist Dr. Michael Birt, promote Arizona as a magnet for personalized medicine internationally.
The Clinical Research Institute in the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare offers a medical setting for clinical trials for new treatments and diagnostics.