Albany Medical Center, ranked as one of the nations top 100 teaching hospitals, is in the forefront of minimally invasive surgery. As part of this effort, the Center developed the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center for Training and Education to provide surgeons with hands-on experience to master this method.

Hyman Hayes Associates was commissioned to program and design the facility, which consists of three main components: a 'dry lab', a four-station operating room (OR), and an offices/video conference area.

Due to limited space in the OR, the design required extensive planning and coordination to install the 4-ft-tall video booms in the ORs and provide the required viewing angles and range of motion, while allowing flexibility to reconfigure the operating tables as needed for specific cases. Extremely low floor-to-floor heights complicated and influenced the design in terms of ductwork soffits, equipment, and OR light support.