Transforming Medical Education

MedEdIn just nine months, the UF College of Medicine has made extraordinary progress on the construction of the George T. Harrell, M.D., Medical Education Building. This 94,000-square-foot, four-story facility is rising quickly and dramatically changing the landscape of the Health Science Center campus.

With a projected completion date of fall 2015, the engineering and construction teams have been working diligently to meet the deadline. The majority of the structure’s exterior has been completed, and interior work will begin in early September.

To be included among the building’s signature spaces will be circular learning studios equipped with advanced technologies to accommodate team-based learning efforts.

“The strategic plan for UF Health has been focused on creating an integrated academic health center with the goal of improving the health of our patients,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., UF Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and President of UF Health. “A major part of that process was creating a medical school curriculum around the patient, and once that was done, we designed a medical education facility that would be customized to house such a forward-looking curriculum.”

Named after the college’s founding dean, George Harrell, M.D., the facility will also enable the college to expand its space for simulation education on the top two floors. The fourth floor will house a state-of-the-art experiential learning theater that can easily be transformed into a variety of settings, creating real-life scenarios to help teach students and professionals complicated, high-risk skills.

“It is a facility built upon a foundation of knowledge, skill and innovation. It brings those essential elements first conceived by Dr. Harrell together with the most technologically advanced teaching and learning tools available today,” said UF College of Medicine Dean Michael L. Good, M.D. “It is reinforced through our core values of humanism, compassion and patient-centric care.”

To see a live stream of the construction site, click here. For more information, visit ANewEra.med.ufl.edu.