To accelerate the pace of discovery, ZSFG recently opened Pride Hall, a brand new research and academic building located just south of Building 5. “Pride Hall represents a seismic shift, both literally and figuratively, in research facilities on the San Francisco General campus,” said Dr. Hunt. Because of requirements that UC employees work in buildings that are up to current earthquake codes, UCSF and ZSFG engaged in a long-range process to construct this facility, the first ever UCSF-owned building on the ZSFG campus. It opened in July 2023.
Co-locating researchers opens up many new possibilities. “There are divisions that work on very similar things, using very similar methods,” said Dr. Hunt. “For example, the Center for Vulnerable Populations does tons of implementation science, and much of that work overlaps with people in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine. You can imagine lots of synergies there, building on existing collaborations and starting novel ones.”
Another affinity group is the many researchers who need to access electronic medical record (EMR) data from patients who receive care at ZSFG. “This can be done in a way that protects patients’ personal health information, but there are significant barriers at this site that put investigators at San Francisco General behind those at Parnassus, where investigators can access EMR data for their research without any barriers,” said Dr. Hunt. “That’s an example of people from vulnerable populations getting left behind. We’re going to work on those problems collectively across divisions in the ZSFG Department of Medicine who require those data for their research."