(Vienna, 18 October 2017) Under the slogan "Serious illness no longer means the end", the Medical University of Vienna is launching an extensive fund-raising campaign to raise awareness about precision medicine and to build a research centre. It is planned to complete the Center for Precision Medicine on the MedUni General Hospital campus by 2022. It is intended to be one of the leading centres for research and development of treatments in this field and to play a major role in 21st-century medicine.
Precision medicine - or personalised medicine - is based on state-of-the art diagnostic methods, such as genome sequencing and molecular imaging, and it should mean that patients can be given more personalised and targeted treatment in future.
Center for Precision Medicine
Three centres are to be built on a total area of 60,000 m2 on the MedUni General Hospital campus, in one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken by the university. The Center for Precision Medicine is to be financed by private donors, sponsors and external funding. Financing is already secured for the two other centres (Center for Translational Medicine and Therapies and Center for Technology Transfer). "The Center for Precision Medicine will represent an important milestone for medicine in Austria. The work of the doctors and basic researchers in this new institution will help to ensure that, in future, serious illnesses no longer mean "the end". Their findings will benefit all patients," says MedUni Vienna rector, Markus Müller, adding: "We hope that by raising awareness we will reach potential backers for the new centre."
Apart from generating donations and establishing the "Center for Precision Medicine" brand, the campaign will focus on highlighting diseases, for which precision medicine could offer improved treatments or even a cure in the future. Embedded in slogans, mostly representing a chronological sequence and supported by graphic illustrations, it is intended to show that such diseases can affect people in the middle of their lives but that, after treatment or even a cure, their lives go on – so that serious illness no longer means the end. Some examples of this are: "Palpitations, Butterflies, Heart Attack, First Kiss.", "Work, Pension, Parkinson's, Round-the-World Trip." or even "Rumba, Cha-Cha, Arthritis, Samba." The campaign will run on 8-sheet posters, citylights and with online banners over the period 18 October to 26 November 2017.
Credits
Customer: Medical University of Vienna, Johannes Angerer, Suzanne Rödler, Siegfried Grobmann, Agency: Kobza and the Hungry Eyes (KTHE), CEO: Rudi Kobza, Strategic Planning: Kaitlyn Chang, Project Management: Klaudia Winkler, Art Direction: Cornelia Neidhardt, Simon Hagleitner, Graphics: Simone Fuchs, Illustration: Rotfilter, Alex Nemec, Concept/copy: Nikolaus Leischko