On Jun. 29, 1987, a crew of just 47 physicians and 225 allied health employees rallied to formally launch Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Before the doors even opened, 1,800 patient appointments had been booked.

Today, the Mayo Clinic in Arizona spans two campuses, comprising more than 400 acres of land, and has added two research buildings on the Scottsdale campus and, on the Phoenix campus, a 244-bed hospital, a specialty clinic, housing for transplant and cancer patients and leased space for a child care center, a hospice and a hotel. Offsite family medicine practices were also added in Scottsdale and Glendale, Ariz.

A visible new development on the Phoenix campus is construction currently under way for the Proton Beam Therapy Program, a precise form of cancer treatment that allows greater control over radiation doses, using pencil-beam scanning. Located just east of Mayo Clinic Hospital, the 100,000-plus square foot facility is expected to open its first treatment rooms by 2016. The center will be the first one in the Southwest.

Plans were also announced in September 2011 for development of a branch of Mayo Medical School, called the Mayo Medical School – Arizona Campus, in collaboration with Arizona State University. Expected to open in 2015, the school will offer both a medical degree granted by Mayo and a master’s degree in the Science of Health Care Delivery through ASU.

Mayo Clinic continues to be committed to innovations, research and new technology related to its core clinical areas — Cancer, Cardiology, Neurosciences and Transplant. Their Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated centers in the U.S., and the only one in the Valley. This designation brings the latest advances in research and technology directly to cancer patients. Patients in need of a life-saving heart, kidney, pancreas, liver or bone marrow transplant are availed of the services of the largest transplant entity in the U.S., given the combined expertise of Mayo’s campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.