ASU announced plans to open a new medical school as part of the “ASU Health” initiative, designed to address healthcare shortages across the state.
ASU President Michael Crow and the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) announced the new ASU School of Medicine & Advanced Medical Engineering at a special meeting in Tempe on Thursday morning.
“We are focusing our full energy and innovation on improving Arizona’s health outcomes,” Crow said in a press release. “Our university charter drives us to assume fundamental responsibility for the overall health of the communities we serve. This is an extension of that core belief.”
Along with the new medical school, ASU Health includes two additional schools and an expansion of ASU’s partnership with the Mayo Clinic.
The project is part of ASU’s contribution to the Board of Regents' "AZ Healthy Tomorrow" plan, which involves a $30 million allocation from ABOR that will go toward efforts from all three state universities, UA, ASU and NAU, to expand healthcare coverage.
The Associated Press reported that the school will be funded with ASU revenue, as well as private investors, philanthropy and public investment.
“This is part of the most aggressive and comprehensive health care plan in Arizona’s history,” ABOR chair elect Fred DuVal said regarding the new school.
Demand for healthcare workers across the state increased substantially over recent years, outstripping supply. The Board plans for Arizona to exceed the national average of doctors-to-patients per capita.
Further details regarding the school’s opening will be discussed over the coming months, according to ASU’s press release announcing the school.
“Today marks the beginning of the work process to execute on all of this and develop more specific plans that will determine location and when admission and enrollment can take place,” an ASU spokesperson said in an email. “It won’t be by Fall of ’23, that’s a certainty.”
Edited by Angelina Steel, Shane Brennan
Reach the reporter at awakefi3@asu.edu and follow @_alexwakefield on Twitter.
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