Sun Health Research Institute
Sun Health Research Institute (SHRI) is an affiliate of Sun Health Corporation, a non-profit, community owned and operated health care provider. What is now known as Sun Health was first conceived in 1965 and was intended to serve the needs of Sun City, Arizona, one of the first planned retirement communities. Sun Health now serves not only the original Sun City but also the adjacent retirement communities of Sun City West and Sun City Grand as well as northwest greater Phoenix in general, all of which have experienced rapid growth of both retirement and non-retirement populations. Services provided by Sun Health include medical insurance, two acute care hospitals, extended and hospice care, outpatient clinics and Alzheimer care residences. Sun Health has recently announced that it will merge with Banner Health, a larger not-for-profit health care provider with multiple facilities throughout greater Phoenix as well as California, Utah and Colorado.
Sun Health Research Institute was established in 1986 with funds from Sun Health operations revenue and charitable contributions to the Sun Health Foundation. Initially known as the Institute for Biogerontology Research, the Institute has grown into one of the world’s largest privately-funded research centers for age-related disorders. The focus of the Institute’s scientific work has been, since its inception, Alzheimer’s disease, with substantial Parkinson’s disease and arthritis research beginning in 1996. More recently there have been extensions into fibromyalgia, orthopedic and prostate cancer research. Since 1998, the Institute has been part of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium (AAC), a state-funded alliance that includes Sun Health Research Institute, the University of Arizona, Tucson Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Barrow Neurological Institute, the Arizona Mayo Clinic, Arizona State University and the Banner Health/Good Samaritan Hospital system. The same consortium was awarded a National Institutes on Aging Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center (ADCC) in 2001 and a state-funded Arizona Parkinson’s Disease Center in 2002. Both of these are headquartered at SHRI.