Investment will improve health outcomes and enable new economic development
AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Texas Board of Regents today gave final authorization for design, development, and additional construction funding for the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine’s new Medical Education Building – approving a total project cost of $308 million for the facility. The UT Tyler School of Medicine will welcome its first cohort of students to campus in the summer of 2023 and the building is expected to be completed in March 2025.
“By approving the total project cost, design development and allocation of funds for the new Medical Education Building today, the regents are taking the next pivotal step in launching the UT System’s 7th medical school – one that is specifically dedicated to benefitting Northeast Texas for generations,” said Kevin P. Eltife, Chairman of the UT Board of Regents.
The Medical Education Building, a planned five-story, nearly 248,000-square-foot facility, will support interdisciplinary education for graduate medical students, resident training, and nursing, and aid as part of a medical education program expansion throughout the UT Health East Texas Health System. In addition, the Medical Education Building will provide outpatient and specialty clinical services with exam rooms, specimen collection/processing, and imaging facilities.
“This facility provides the physical cornerstone of UT Tyler’s plan to train physicians and meet health care needs across the state, while also growing workforce opportunities and economic development in the region,” said UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken.
The Medical Education Building will be built in Tyler’s Midtown District and will connect via skybridge to the UT Health East Texas Hospital – allowing for hands-on learning of residents in the adjacent hospitals. It is designed to have blended programming and clinical spaces for patient care, including women’s imaging, women’s health, diagnostic center, orthopedics, and sports medicine, pulmonary and a surgery center to support medical residents in the graduate medical education programs.
“I am immensely grateful to the UT System Board of Regents, Chancellor Milliken and our community of supporters who have been instrumental in the efforts to enhance health education for East Texas,” said UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun.
The UT Tyler School of Medicine will be the first in northeast Texas, offering aspiring doctors a chance to train and practice without leaving the region. Capital projects funded over the next decade, including the new Medical Education Building, will ensure the new medical school has the right environment in place to draw and retain exceptional medical school faculty and students and enhance biomedical research and core residency programs.
(Release from UT System)