Mayo Clinic today announced plans to open a new privately funded medical school branch in Scottsdale, the first such expansion outside Mayo's Rochester, Minn., base.
Mayo Clinic said it would collaborate with Arizona State University for the $266 million Mayo Medical School branch at Mayo's campus on Shea Boulevard near Arizona 101.
Plans for the new medical school signal the health provider's effort to expand medical education in Arizona and further cement its roots in the community.
"It seems like the right time to do this," said Mayo Clinic CEO John Noseworthy. "This is a very strong statement that Mayo Clinic intends to be here and is signaling that we wish to grow our presence in Arizona as the major academic medical center in the Valley."
Noseworthy said the timing for the launch of the medical school will hinge on how quickly Mayo can raise private funds for the expansion. Mayo will seek to raise $75 million in donations to start the project. The first class of 48 students could start by 2014.
The program will combine medical education and clinical training. Students also will be required to complete medical education coursework at the Mayo campus and science of health care delivery coursework taught by ASU faculty. Students graduating from the four-year program will earn a Mayo medical degree and an ASU master's degree in the science of health care delivery.
Mayo said it plans to remodel buildings on its Scottsdale campus to house the medical school. Mayo and ASU will provide faculty to teach the students.
Mayo Clinic expansion is the latest medical school to grow in metro Phoenix in recent years. The University of Arizona College of Medicine opened a new Phoenix campus in 2007. Two other private schools, Midwestern University in Glendale and A.T. Still University in Mesa, also have opened osteopathic medical schools.
The new collaboration marks a change of course for ASU. ASU originally teamed with the University of Arizona in 2007 to launch UA's downtown medical school branch. ASU dropped out of the partnership last year, citing state budget cuts.
Since 2003, Mayo and ASU have worked together on nursing education, research, joint faculty appointments and dual-degree programs. In February, ASU announced it would relocate its biomedical informatics program from downtown Phoenix to Mayo's Scottsdale campus. ASU also will provide training for Mayo Clinic's planned proton-beam therapy radiation program, a method of delivering pinpoint radiation treatment for cancer patients.
