Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow, joined by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, today announced that the university’s headquarters for ASU Health, which includes a new medical school, will be built at a location to be determined in downtown Phoenix.
ASU Health, which will address health-related outcomes for the citizens of Arizona, includes not only a school of medicine built around engineering, but also a School of Public Health Technology.
“We are very excited that all three of these things, the headquarters for ASU Health and two new schools, will be built in downtown Phoenix,” Crow said. “The citizens of Phoenix have been an important investor in higher education, science technology and medicine in downtown Phoenix. We are looking forward to working with Mayor Gallego, the city council and city leaders to create something that will enhance the entire health care ecosystem and be of service to the entire state. This is the right place to advance that work.”
ASU’s Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and its College of Health Solutions are already a part of the university’s downtown Phoenix campus, which began as part of a municipal bond election in 2006 and is now home to more than 12,000 students and nine colleges and units.
“At a time when the Phoenix bioscience industry is booming, and when the need for highly trained medical professionals is at an all-time high, it’s a big deal that ASU has chosen downtown Phoenix for their newest venture,” Gallego said. “ASU’s commitment is a testament to the strong and productive partnership the city has fostered over the past two decades and speaks to the brighter, healthier future that we envision for Phoenix families.”
The new ASU School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering will integrate clinical medicine, biomedical science and engineering. Clinical partnerships, including the existing alliance between ASU and Mayo Clinic, will support both research and academic programs, delivering solutions that improve patient and health care outcomes
“The ASU School of Medicine will produce a new kind of doctor who is technologically enhanced by every tool imaginable and able to work across entire communities, not just with individual patients,” Crow said. “It also means Phoenix will leap to the leading edge of physician development, physician-oriented research and public health-oriented research.”
Currently, Arizona ranks near or in the bottom quartile of many health system performance indicators, including No. 32 overall, No. 44 in access and affordability, and No. 41 in prevention and treatment. The state’s steadily growing population only aggravates the problem, experts say, and Arizona faces a shortage in almost every health care profession.
ASU Health was announced in the spring in response to requests from the Arizona Board of Regents to expand medical education in Arizona by launching a new medical school, one charged with addressing the significant and growing health care needs of the state.