News

Oct 22, 2024

Medical facility replaces Chandler trampoline park | Citynews | chandlernews.com

ACT Medical Park would provide both testing and treatment at its new facility in Chandler. It includes a 24-bed ward for patients who are undergoing clinical trials. Turns out the perfect location for

ACT Medical Park would provide both testing and treatment at its new facility in Chandler. It includes a 24-bed ward for patients who are undergoing clinical trials.

Turns out the perfect location for a medical research facility is a former indoor trampoline park.

ACT Medical Park celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 19. It’s located inside the former Xtreme Air 1 attraction at the northwest corner of Pecos and McQueen roads in Chandler.

“It’s amazing when I think about the first time that I ever saw it,” said Angie Coste, who is vice president of phase one research for American Liver Health. “It was probably September 2021, or something like that. It’s been a long road.”

Arizona Clinical Trials (ACT) and Arizona Liver Health are working together inside the former trampoline park to focus on one of the least studied organs in the human body.

The liver has not received a lot of attention.

“There are still a lot of gaps and opportunities in liver disease to find new therapies to help patients,” said Dr. Anita Kohli, chief executive officer for Arizona Liver Health and Arizona Clinical Trials. “I would say in medicine, liver disease is one of the things people talk about the least.

“It’s kind of the unknown area.”

The new treatment center and research clinic inside the 28,000 square foot building hopes to change that. There is a ward where patients can be treated in 24 private rooms and monitored on a long-term basis. There is also space for people to come in for a quick check up or medical test.

The company opened its first facility in Chandler in 2016 and has been growing since. It now has offices in Tucson and Ohio.

The original Chandler facility will remain open. Kohli said the two different facilities complement each other. She said the new facility will probably employ around 90 people when they are fully staffed.

So why has research often overlooked the liver?

“It’s a specialty area where, up until recently, there haven’tt been a lot of options to treat the disease,” Coste said. “Until this year, there’s been no drug treatment, no opportunity.”

She said doctors usually prescribed losing weight, exercise and living a healthier lifestyle to treat liver disease until very recently.

The City of Chandler has been working to redevelop empty retail and office space into something new. In August, Economic Development Director Micah Miranda gave a presentation to City Council updating them on his office’s progress.

He said medical offices are an attractive option. The city’s vacancy rate for retail space is only 4.7%, which is below the city’s five-year average. However, its vacancy rate for office space is 19.6%, well above the five-year average.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed work spaces and Miranda said developers have been slow to react to the new reality.

Miranda said medical offices will play a key role as Chandler’s population continues to age and need more medical services.

Kohli said because there are few options for patients who have liver disease, their research facility gives them hope. Patients know they are part of a research project and that the drugs and treatments they receive have not yet been approved by the federal government.

However, many of them don’t have time to wait for that. Being a part of a study gives them their best hope for recovery.

“We talk to patients in a balanced manner, sort of about what is the standard treatment,” Kohli said. “Sometimes, the clinical trials and there are other options. We talk about those other options, and kind of weigh the pros and cons of how they may fit into the patient’s total care.

“There are quite a few patients that end up wanting to go on to trials after discussing those options, because the other options may be limited.”

910 E. Pecos Road, Chandler

480-470-4000

www.azliver.com,

www.azclinicaltrials.com

Never miss an issue. Sign up for free today.