Evening star., 1948-06-29
Clinical Center
Constructionto.
Begin Shortly
Bids to Be Asked
For $40. .000, 900
Bethesda Project
By Harold B. Rogers

Construction Of the new $4,000.
900 Clinical Center at Bethesda,
will get under way this summer it
was announced today by Federal
Security Administrator Oscar r.
Ewing.
Bids will be invited next month
for the first important step Of
construction, he said Under present
plans 1t is hoped the project may
be completed within three years.
The 13-story brick building will
house the National Institute Of
Mental Health and hospital facilities
for the National Cancer Institute,
the new National Heart Institute
and the new National Institute OF
Dental Research.
The first contract will be for
grading of the grounds, construc-
ton of roads and building Of the
lower part of the big clinical center.
The contract Is TO provide for the
sub-SubbaSement. the subbasement,
the basement and the first floor
only. Other phases of the construc-
ton job will follow later.
Bids to Be Advertised.
The bids will be advertised by the
Public Building Administration of
the Federal Works Agency which
has charge of construction.
Funds to start the job were made
available by appropriations ap-
proved by Congress just before ad-
journment and by recent signing
of the appropriation bill by Presi-
dent Truman.
The new building, Mr.. Ewing ex-
planned, will provide an unusual
combination of hospital and labora-
tory facilities within a single struc-
ture.'
This, he emphasized at a press
conference, will make possible q
unified. planned attack by physi-
clans and laboratory scientists upon
some of the battling medical
problems
Major emphasis will thus be
placed on the predominant causes
of death and the most frequent
causes of disability in the Nation
today"
Problems of tuberculosis will not
be investigated under present plans
for the institute, it was explained
by DR.. Leonard A. Scheele, surgeon
general of the Public Health Serv-
ice, who joined in the conference.
Segregation Barred.
Asked If patients in the new
hospital would be segregated, Mr..
Ewing replied: There will be no
segregation"
i Patients for the hospital, 1t was
explained. will be drawn from all
parts of the country, referred to the
clinical center by physicians. hos
pitals and other health agencies on
the basis of problems under study at
various times. ~
The staff Of the center, it was ex-
iplained, probably will include about
1000 personnel, Of which $500 would
be engaged in research.
The scientific labora tories will oc-
cupy two-thirds of the building, in
cluding the north side of the central
structure and six wings. In one Of
the wings new products, available
through atomic energy research and
highly complex machines. will be
utilized for the treatment of certain
forms of tumors and also for the
study of body functions in health
and disease.
The clinical center will include
hospital facilities for the new Ma
tional Institute of Dental Research.
just established by Congress, but a
new building to house the research
facilities of the National Institute
of Dental Research has been author
lied by Congress to be located on
the grounds nearby. No funds have
yet been appropriated, however, for
the new dental building.
Site Near Naval Center.
Located on a site opposite the
Naval Medical Center, the clinical
center will be part of the already
established agencies of the Federal
Security Agency and the Public
Health Service there.
Additional land is being pur-
chased and probably will expand
the area for the consolidated Ma
tional Institutes of Health to about
800 acres. The additional land, al
ready under negotiation for acqui-
sition, was said to include the
Woodmont Country Club and the
Peters estate.
The medical director of the Clin-
ica1 Center is DR.. Jack Masur.
The National Institutes of Health
formerly was called the National
Institute of Health. The name was
made plural today, it was explained.
because of the increased number OF