The Organ Trail!
The Organ Trail is a series of caches with special dedication to combining my fondness of geocaching and medicine. As a surgical resident I spend much time living at the hospital but when not there geocaching has become a favorite! Its always been a good way to get out of the house and have some healthy fun. To take healthy to the next level I wanted to make a series of caches which drew attention to different aspects of medicine and healthcare, hence The Organ Trail was born!
A Day Under the Knife
This cache is number nine in the series! Two interesting buildings stand near this cache and both should be recognized for the awesome they house. On one side you have the MMCRI - Maine Medical Center Research Institute, the other side is the Scarborough Surgery Center. They both stand as marvels in their respected fields which are hidden jems in the area.
The MMCRI is a full breath research facility which ranges from basic and lab research through clinical research. In the middle is translational research which is an emerging field of research. Translational research looks into bridging the bench and lab research to patients and ways to practically apply bench research. This use to be a long process that the pharmaceuticals would usualy use to make new products but now is being looked at in a more academic arena. MMCRI is one of the country's premier research facilities and also houses research on molecular medicine and tick and vector-borne diseases. As a core part of the facility there is extremly high tech equipment for imaging analysis which range on some of the best in the country.
On the other side you have the Scarborough Surgery Center, an ambulatory surgical center (same day or next day surgery). This was opened in 2007 and has been nationally recognized for both quality of care and the building itself! These include the Build Boston Exhibition, the Healthcare Design Architectural Showcase and the ASHE Archetecture for Health Gallery. Inside are 10 operating rooms (which are large, bright rooms filled with high quality equipment... to me this is important!) and house the same high calibur of staff, nursing care and same surgeons as Maine Medical Center.
The cache is an easy cache that's smack in the middle of the two buildings. Should be an easy find and a nice walk path if you feel like strolling around. FTF prize in the cache!