Research Institute Since 1956, Maine Medical Center has recruited NIH-funded scientists to staff its research institute. The facility is subdivided into the centers for molecular medicine, clinical and translational research, outcomes research and evaluation, psychiatric research, and Lyme and vector-borne diseases. The institute also participates in multiple national and international clinical trials in fields ranging from cardiology to oncology, offering opportunities for graduate and post-doctoral training as well as funding. Currently, Maine Medical Center Research Institute is one of 126 NIH-designated "Centers for Research Excellence" receiving funding for stem and progenitor cell biology and regenerative medicine. Governance Maine Medical Center is owned by MaineHealth, the state's largest healthcare organization. MaineHealth formed in the late 1990s from MMC, with its first board of directors serving from 1999 to 2000. MaineHealth owns and operates a series of mental, long-term, primary care, emergency, and home healthcare facilities in southern, central, and western Maine. Other MaineHealth companies include Memorial Hospital, North Conway NH, Western Maine Health (Penbay Medical Center & Waldo), Southern Maine Health Care (Biddeford & Sanford), LincolnHealth, Spring Harbor Hospital and HomeHealth-VNSM. Barbara Bush Children's Hospital Referred to as a "hospital within a hospital", the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital (BBCH) is integrated within Maine Medical Center to offer a complete range of pediatric services, specialties and programs including behavioral and developmental, neonatal, cardiology, infectious disease, neurology, palliative care and otolaryngology, among others. The original Children's Hospital opened in 1908, later merging with the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary (opened in 1890) and the Maine General Hospital (opened in 1874) to become Maine Medical Center. In 1998, the facility sought formal accreditation for its children's services as the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center. The hospital treats infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Maine. The inpatient unit of BBCH is approximately with 109 beds including a 31-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a 20-bed continuing care nursery. Specialty programs and care centers Barbara Bush Children's Hospital Joint Replacement Center Family Birth Center Cancer Institute Digestive Health Center Poison Center Scarborough Surgery Center MaineHealth VitalNetwork Maine Transplant Program Affiliations Maine Medical Center is a teaching hospital, currently using the Maine Track program at Tufts University School of Medicine. This program allows students from Maine, or those interested in practicing there, to complete the second through fourth year of medical school at MMC in Portland rather than Boston. MMC