Virginia Tech has teamed up with the Carilion Clinic to create a new medical school and research institute in Roanoke. Its first class of 42 students will begin classes on August 2.
The idea for the Virginia Tech Carilion Medical School and Research Institute developed between Tech president Charles Steger and Carilion CEO Ed Murphy. They first announced the idea three years ago on January 3, 2007.
The two parts of the center, the medical school and the research institute, are collectively known as Virginia Tech Carilion, or VTC.
“Virginia Tech and Dr. Steger were interested in being involved with medical research more than was possible without a medical school,” said Cynda Johnson, dean of the medical school. “It met the needs on both sides.”
In what is known as a “public-private partnership,” VTC will combine the scientific expertise and research at Tech with Carilion’s trained medical staff to teach future physicians.
According to Johnson, it is the school’s curriculum that makes it stand out among other medical schools in the nation.
“Having the curriculum based on the four different value domains is unique to the country,” Johnson said.
These four value domains are basic sciences, clinic sciences, research and interprofessionalism.
She explained that because medical knowledge is constantly being advanced, the curriculum focuses less on content and more on teaching the students to become leaders and researchers who can adapt to an ever-changing field of medicine.
“What I think is important for the future is that the physician’s primary practice and research principles are inseparable,” Johnson said. “If you practice using research and critical thinking you are able to assess your patients critically and be the best doctor of all.”
VTC will also employ a teaching method called “patient-centered learning.”
“It means that we think about the patient in everything that we do. Everything is based on the needs of the patient, as opposed to what might make the doctor happy,” Johnson said.
According to VTC’s website, only 15 percent of medical schools in the country use a patient-centered learning program.
In the Research Institute, which will eventually be housed in an adjacent building to the school, Tech professors and Carilion physicians will conduct research with the help of students.
“In addition to carrying out research, we will also train students in research,” said Michael Friedlander, executive director for the Research Institute. “Those researchers include graduate students from Tech and other schools, medical students from the school, and research fellows and physicians from Carilion.”
Research is one of the main ways that VTC will work with Tech on a daily basis.
“We’ll be collaborating quite extensively with other researchers at Tech, and we will be interconnected by virtue of the relationships with Tech departments,” Friedlander said. “We will also teach some classes at the medical school, primary at the graduate level, which will be videotaped so that students at Tech and other remote locations can see them.”
Johnson said that the professors at the medical school will include Tech faculty, Carilion physicians, as well as new independent hires.
“Seeing the integration happen between the strong, outstanding students at Virginia Tech and the outstanding staff at Carilion is one of the things I’m most looking forward to. We’re the bridge between those two areas,” Friedlander said.
The Research Institute building will be opened officially on September 1, and some of the labs will begin to be set up that very day.
“By December 1, another section of the building will be complete, one that will house facilities for human brain imaging,” Friedlander said.
Buildings for both parts of the VTC were paid for through a capital projects bond package signed into legislation in 2008 by then-governor Tim Kaine.
However, VTC will be a private medical school. According to the medical school’s dean Johnson, tuition and philanthropy will be the main funding sources. A $40,000 tuition per year applies to all students, both in-state and out-of-state.
Johnson said that the school would also have economic benefits for the entire region, recalling her experience in her previous position as dean of the medical school at Eastern Carolina University.
“When I was at ECU, the medical school was about 30 years. It was an incredible example of how having a medical school present totally changed the region. When that was placed in Greenville, it really became the economic hub of the region,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve already seen some the economic growth.”