A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Evansville Multi-Institutional Academic Health Science Education & Research Campus in downtown Evansville, marking the launch of a new model of medical education training for future physicians and health professionals in Indiana. The medical, education and research campus is the result of a unique and well-coordinated collaboration between four regional hospitals (Deaconess Health System, Evansville, Ind.; Good Samaritan Hospital, Vincennes, Ind.; Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Jasper, Ind.; and St. Mary’s Health System, Evansville, Ind.) and three institutions of higher education (Indiana University, University of Evansville, and University of Southern Indiana). The facility will offer the most advanced technologies to educate and train future generations of physicians, dentists, nurses, health science researchers, and other health care providers.

The medical education research center will open for the 2017-2018 academic school year. The concept for an academic and research campus was initiated from a proposal by Indiana University School of Medicine-Evansville to the Evansville Regional Business Committee in 2011 to expand medical education in the Evansville region. The proposal identified a critical shortage of physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners; and aging demographics that would intensify the physician shortage.