University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
UPMC exemplifies the economic rebirth of Pittsburgh through innovation and transformation—its success has been Pittsburgh’s success. An $8-billion nonprofit global health enterprise, it has led Pittsburgh’s shift from smokestack industries to a vigorous 21st-century economy founded on medicine, science, education, and technology.
UPMC is composed of 20 hospitals, more than 400 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, an innovative health insurance division, and an international and commercial division that shares its medical, management, and technology expertise around the globe. At the same time, its contributions to the local community amounted to more than $500 million in the 2008 fiscal year, including $250 million invested in research and education.
It is consistently ranked among the nation’s best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report magazine. In collaboration with its academic partner, the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC has advanced the quality and efficiency of health care and developed internationally renowned programs in transplantation, cancer, neurosurgery, psychiatry, orthopaedics, and sports medicine, among others.
UPMC is commercializing its medical and technological expertise by nurturing new companies, developing strategic business relationships with some of the world’s leading multinational corporations, and expanding into international markets, including Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, and Qatar.
UPMC’s health care ventures in Italy provide high-quality care to patients from many nations, facilitate the international exchange of medical and scientific knowledge, and contribute to the economic renewal of the Region of Sicily. Over the past decade, UPMC’s Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie (ISMETT) in Palermo, Sicily, a public-private partnership, has become one of the leading transplantation centers in Italy and the Mediterranean.
Under the auspices of the Ri.MED Foundation, UPMC also will manage a new Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center that is being created in Sicily. The foundation was established by the Italian government with the participation of the Italian Council of Ministers, the Region of Sicily, the Italian National Research Council, the University of Pittsburgh, and UPMC.
Building upon its expertise in oncology and its experience in operating more than 40 UPMC Cancer Centers in Western Pennsylvania, it has developed similar centers in Ireland that deliver advanced cancer treatments, including surgical intervention, chemotherapy, and radiation oncology services to people in the Waterford and Dublin areas. UPMC also operates Beacon Hospital, an independent, full-service facility in Dublin.
In addition, UPMC is implementing a comprehensive electronic health record system for the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals in the United Kingdom; provides emergency medicine training and technical services to three hospitals in Qatar; and will manage a newly created health care center in Cyprus.