UC Riverside proudly announced the progress of its future medical school at a ceremony March 18 celebrating the completion of the research building. The $36 Million research facility boasts 58,000 square feet and has won the LEED Silver designation for its green design: it will use only a third the energy of a typical lab. But the real accomplishment of the new medical school will have less to do with its architecture and more to do with its purpose and vision.
Consider these facts:
- No new medical schools have been built in California in the past 40 years
- The population in California is growing, while the number of physicians being produced continues to drop
- 95% of medical training takes place in large medical facilities, though most people see a doctor in an out-patient setting
UC Riverside's will be a community-driven medical school where physicians will be trained and encouraged to stay and practice in the Inland Empire of the Coachella Valley east of Los Angeles, where there is already a shortage of doctors for the growing population. The medical school is on schedule to enroll its first class of students in 2012; at full-capacity Riverside will graduate 250 interns and specialists a year, largely drawn from and returning to the inland community to practice.
(Video courtesy of UC Riverside)
If you are a supplier of life science laboratory equipment and would like to meet researchers and industry representatives in the Riverside area, plan on attending Biotechnology Calendar's 8th Annual Riverside BioResearch Product Faire™ Event August 21, 2013.