Welcoming in a new era in cellular therapy patient care, the Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics has opened a Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapies Unit focused on superior patient care.

The spacious facility was designed with help from patients to make patient comfort and convenience a top priority, says UI clinical professor Margarida Magalhaes-Silverman, MD, director of the BMT program.

“We asked our current and past patients for their input, and their generous feedback allowed us to create this beautiful new unit that we can truly call patient-centered,” Magalhaes-Silverman says. “As the only BMT program in Iowa, we are always striving to give our patients, who travel here from all parts of the state, the best experience possible while they’re in our care.”

Forward-looking engineering enables the latest treatments

Designers engineered the new unit to make it easier for BMT staff to quickly and efficiently implement the latest therapies as soon as they become available. With forward-looking patient-safety and quality-control features implemented throughout the facility, BMT staff can deliver cutting-edge cellular therapies for years to come.

“Earlier this year we became one of the first facilities in the nation to offer CAR T-cell therapy for patients with certain types of lymphoma or leukemia,” Magalhaes-Silverman says. “The design of this new unit gives us the flexibility to offer more of that kind of groundbreaking medicine as it becomes available.”

Improvements from top to bottom

The new Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapies Unit includes:

• An activity room where patients can exercise and work with physical therapists
• Larger patient rooms with family-support amenities, including larger bathrooms and showers and ample refrigerator and storage space
• A staff workstation with the latest technology, designed to help staff interact with patients more quickly and easily
• A comfortable family lounge equipped with teleconferencing technology to give families remote access to care conferences