UA medical school in Phoenix a hub of growth
At UA medical school in Phoenix, new students and new buildings underscore promise for future
5 commentsby Ken Alltucker - Jul. 21, 2012 03:37 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
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With the arrival of 80 fresh-faced medical students for classes this week at University of Arizona's medical school in Phoenix, Arizona's grand experiment to create a medical and research hub in downtown Phoenix takes another step forward.
The 80 students represent the largest class since the UA College of Medicine established a downtown Phoenix campus five years ago. Those future doctors soon will share the newly opened health sciences education building with Northern Arizona University students who are studying to become physical therapists and physician assistants.
Beyond the new building, new programs and new students, the campus is scheduled to expand later this year with the groundbreakings of a 250,000-square-foot University of Arizona Cancer Center and a privately funded biotech lab next to the building anchored by the Translational Genomics Research Institute and International Genomics Consortium.
The downtown Phoenix campus also could receive renewed focus from the University of Arizona's new president, Ann Weaver Hart, and the Arizona Board of Regents' newly formed health committee.
Arizona leaders have high expectations that the Phoenix Biomedical Campus will sprout jobs, health-care professionals and medical discoveries that bolster Arizona's effort to grow its health-care and biotechnology sectors. And even though the biomedical campus has had challenges -- such as Arizona State University ending its partnership with UA's medical school and leadership changes -- university officials are optimistic about the biomedical campus' potential.
"It's important to show it is continuing forward progress," said Jay Heiler, who chairs the Arizona Board of Regents health committee. "It is critical not only for the universities. It is going to end up emerging as a very important piece of Arizona's economy."
Cancer-center plans
Although the medical-school campus has classroom and lab space, it does not have clinical space where practitioners and health-care students can hone their craft and treat patients. The Arizona Cancer Center is slated to become the campus' first clinical presence with a scheduled groundbreaking later this year.
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center and the University of Arizona are still negotiating lease terms for the $135 million cancer center even though the Phoenix wanted such details to be completed by the end of June. Both parties insist that they are on track to meet the most important goal established by Phoenix: starting construction by Dec. 22.
Plans call for St. Joseph's Hospital to operate the cancer center's clinic, and 70 percent of the building's area will be devoted to clinical space. But the exact amount of space that St. Joseph's will require is subject to ongoing talks between the two groups, said Dr. David Alberts, director of the Arizona Cancer Center.
Alberts said development costs could end up being less than the estimated $135 million because construction and materials costs have dropped since the recession. The University of Arizona has pledged $85 million in bonds to fund the bulk of the project's development costs. Phoenix also has pledged $14 million. The University of Arizona Foundation expects to raise more than $30 million from private donors for the balance of funding.
"The first step is to get the lease signed and, at that point, we'll be in a much stronger position," said Alberts. "The financing of the building is dependent upon the lease agreement."
Suzanne Pfister, St. Joseph's vice president of external affairs, said the amount of space the Phoenix hospital will lease at the new cancer center "has not been determined yet."
Alberts and Pfister emphasized that as talks over lease terms continue, both groups are forging ahead on other aspects of the project such as branding, combining resources and reaching out to community cancer doctors who will be courted for the new center.
"The relationship with St. Joseph's has really been solidified," Alberts said. "We are already starting to hire key faculty and staff" for a smaller, temporary cancer clinic that has launched at the Phoenix hospital.
Seeking tenants
The other new building slated for the downtown Phoenix Biomedical Campus is one planned between the existing TGen and Arizona Biomedical Collaborative building on Fifth Street.
The Boyer Co., a Salt Lake City-based developer, is attempting to lease space to companies or other users for the planned six-story, 150,000-square-foot building. No leases have been announced for the building, but plans call for construction to start before the end of the year, according to Jeremy Legg, of Phoenix's economic development department.
Matt Jensen, Boyer's project manager for the biomedical campus, said that the company is negotiating with a handful of government and private-sector tenants for the building.
Boyer's development agreement with the city requires leases for 80 percent of the building prior to construction, but Jensen said lenders may be willing to fund the project if 50 to 60 percent of the building is leased.
Boyer also plans to develop a 1,250-space parking garage on the campus. The timing and finances of the parking garage may be tricky because Boyer needs to ensure enough workers from both the cancer center and the lab will fill the garage before it can start construction. And those users could be assessed a monthly fee of $60 to $90, or perhaps more, for parking at the garage.
Even with new lab workers paying for parking, it's unclear whether the finances will support construction of a new garage.
"It would help to have some city funding," said Jensen, adding that the critical mass of employees and students to the biomedical campus is crucial to making the finances of building a parking garage work.
"You are not going to be able to just build a speculative parking garage and hope it is paid for," he said.
Legg said that if the Boyer Co. is unable to fulfill terms of the agreement with Phoenix, the city could solicit other developers or pursue other projects.
"If they can't make it work, we would retain the land and find somebody else who can do a project that makes sense for the city," Legg said.
Medical-school campus
As the UA's medical-school campus expands in downtown Phoenix, it also is shaping an identity that is unique from the UA's main medical-school campus in Tucson. Just last month, the Phoenix campus received its own preliminary accreditation from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The Phoenix campus previously operated under the Tucson campus' accreditation.
Such a designation validates the Phoenix campus and gives its more autonomy in crafting its own curriculum, according to university leaders.
"It is maturing to a stage that some of us might not have expected so quickly," said Lyle Bootman, the university's interim vice president of health affairs.
Bootman said each campus has been designed with unique curricula and nuances in the academic programs. Tucson students, for example, train at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, while Phoenix students train at different hospitals in the community, such as Banner Good Samaritan, Maricopa Medical Center and St. Joseph's.
The Phoenix students also are required to complete a scholarly project that has a community impact, such as studying obesity rates among Native Americans and Hispanics or pain management for cancer patients.
Bootman said he doesn't expect dramatic changes from the new Phoenix campus' accreditation, but he said "it does give them more autonomy and control over part of the curriculum."
While some Tucson faculty have expressed worries in the past that the Phoenix campus would divert the medical school's limited resources, Bootman said that each campus should build off its strengths. The Phoenix students may benefit from learning from scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute, Banner Alzheimer's Institute or TGen. Conversely, the Tucson students can learn from experts at the Sarver Heart Center or the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.
Community leaders have paid close attention to the changes afoot at the downtown Phoenix campus.
Maricopa Integrated Health Systems CEO Betsey Bayless has long sought to build a new hospital at the downtown campus to replace the district's Maricopa Medical Center. On Friday, the district's board rejected a proposal to pursue a ballot initiative this fall that would ask voters to approve a $950 million bond issue for a new hospital and renovations to other facilities.
The board instead will vote next month whether to pursue a plan with public input with the goal of placing it on the November 2013 or November 2014 ballot.
"That is the board's decision," Bayless said last week before the district board's Friday vote. "It is my vision to establish a clinical presence on the University of Arizona's College of Medicine campus."
Arizona Board of Regents Chair Rick Myers said he expects UA's new president also will play a critical role in growing UA's presence on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
"She (Hart) absolutely wants to be aggressive, to build a competitive plan and do things that will make the (Phoenix Biomedical Campus) a resource for Arizona," Myers said.
Myers said he wants to see all three of the state's public universities to work together to make the state more competitive in obtaining federal grants and making new discoveries.
"I know there have been concerns in the past about who controls what," Myers said. "I really think that is behind us. With the new leadership, the intent is let's do what is best for (Arizona)."
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