Quinnipiac University in Hamden announced Thursday morning plans to open a medical school in North Haven, with an emphasis on primary care and health issues in developing countries.
Quinnipiac hopes to matriculate its first medical students in either 2013 or 2014. The school did not immediately specify how much it would cost to open a medical school; Quinnipiac had a $223 million endowment as of 2007.
Quinnipiac opened a satellite campus in North Haven last August, having purchased the site in 2007 from Wellpoint Inc., the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield. Quinnipiac currently has its school of health sciences there that trains students for careers in nursing, imaging, and occupational therapy among other programs, and in time plans to have most graduate programs at the campus as well as infrastructure for its online programs.
“A medical school is the next logical extension for Quinnipiac since we now prepare so many other essential members of the health care team,” said Edward O”™Connor, dean of the Quinnipiac School of Health Sciences. “It only makes sense that we extend our health professions programs to include training physicians, particularly in this time of critical health care reform.”
Quinnipiac said it would hold discussions with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body for U.S. medical schools hospitals and health systems. The university also plans to reach out to hospitals and health systems themselves, with an eye to establishing one or more formal affiliations.
The board of trustees gave its approval following a year of internal studies and a six-month feasibility study by outside consultants. The study concluded that a medical school is compatible with the university”™s mission, and that Quinnipiac has both the financial and physical resources necessary to open one.
“Two major challenges that must be successfully met are securing a major hospital (or) health system clinical partner, and meeting the very high and demanding accreditation standards,” said John Lahey, president of the university, in a written statement. “Quinnipiac will turn its immediate attention to these two requirements and goals.”
If successful, Quinnipiac would be one of just 90 universities nationally with both a law school and medical school, including the University of Connecticut and Yale University.
The university also has programs in business, communications, education, arts and sciences. Quinnipiac has 5,700 undergraduate students and 2,000 graduate students.
