What would you do with a $900 million hospital?

A $900 million, ultra-high-tech teaching hospital is being built in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, will be its medical school affiliate. Weill Cornell has had a medical school campus in the Qatar capital of Doha for two years in partnership with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a not-for-profit foundation funded by the oil-rich nation. The 350-bed hospital, endowed with $8 billion, is the latest project in a complex of educational and research facilities on the outskirts of Doha known as Education City. Weill Cornell will direct teaching and research at the hospital, which is expected to be completed in 2008, and will partner with the foundation in the hospital's operation. Qatar has a population of about 534,000 people. -- by Modern Physician/MP Stat