It is one of 78 centers nationally funded by the National Institute of Health. The Center is designed to provide a patient care environment where researchers can search for ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases. The clients are healthy and ill volunteers who have met eligibility criteria for approved research studies. Most of the patients on the unit are adults of both sexes. Pediatric studies are coordinated by GCRC pediatric and perinatal CNS's at UW Children's Hospital and at Meriter's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Patient acuity varies.
The mortality rate is low. The case mix includes oncology, pulmonary, allergy, preventative medicine, neurology, pediatric, psychiatry, pain, renal, pharmacology and endocrine patients, though any population could be researched.