Peeling black-and-white wounds snaked around his shoulder and down his chest. The patient, she was told, was working on a home-improvement project when sparks flew from a tool and set fire to a wall near a propane tank.

Jane quickly began running through a mental checklist of what instructions to give her teammates and how to assess her patient when he began screaming. The man’s father rushed past the front desk, begging to see his son. As Jane watched attendants pull the father back, the patient suddenly went into cardiac arrest.

Jane couldn’t think. She needed advice.

So she paused for a reality check—a literal one.

Everyone in the emergency room froze as Jane removed her virtual-reality headset and turned to her instructor for guidance. Jane was taking part in a University of Utah School of Medicine training simulation. The patient, father, and emergency room were all virtual, part of an interactive software program designed to replicate medical scenarios.

Welcome to the future of medical education.

“It’s one thing to teach medicine within a classroom, but often we don’t control the environment,” said University of Utah School of Medicine Associate Dean for Curriculum Sara M. Lamb, MD. “How do you juggle information coming in—what you see and hear—and manage your surroundings while in a heightened state? The situation affects our choices.”

The facility for this new vision of medical training isn’t a reality yet for School of Medicine students, but in a few years it will be.

University of Utah Health is embarking on the construction of a new 248,553-square-foot state-of-the-art facility embedded in its health-sciences campus. The medical education building will ensure the School of Medicine has an advanced home that enables cutting-edge training, and can anticipate and integrate educational changes that arise over the next half-century.

The medical education building was approved by the state legislature in 2017 with a $50 million commitment, followed by $60 million in philanthropic pledges. The project is expected to cost a total of $185 million and is scheduled to open in 2023.

“The School of Medicine is one of the gems of the University of Utah,” said U of U President Ruth V. Watkins. “It has contributed to the university’s national standing as a leading academic-research institution and has trained generations of providers who have served the people of our great state, region, and nation. This new facility is one of our highest priorities.”

DISCOVERY CENTER

Within the James LeVoy Sorenson Innovation and Discovery Center, researchers and students will develop and implement innovations in teaching, research, and clinical outcomes.

“Students will not just learn about new discoveries or train on new medical technology—they’re going to create them,” said Bernhard Fassl, MD, the interim co-director of the Center for Medical Innovation. “We will bring together people from across disciplines to address the most pressing issues in medicine.”

Made possible by a substantial donation and accounting for nearly a third of the overall footprint of the building, the new center will house leading-edge simulation and 3-D printers to create products and techniques for teaching.

THE DISCOVERY CENTER INCLUDES:

• The Center for Genomic Innovation, which researches and identifies genes that play a role in disease.

• The Therapeutic Games and Apps Lab (GApp), which develops interactive, medically focused games and applications.

• The Center for Medical Innovation, which brings new ideas and products to life by connect- ing innovators throughout the university and guiding them through the stages of development.

• A Prototyping Lab and Machine Shop, which repairs existing devices, and designs and fabricates new products for the School of Medicine.

• The Anesthesiology Bioengineering Laboratory, which develops and tests medical devices for use during anesthesia and intensive care. The laboratory will focus on translational applications, creating technologies that wind up at bedsides and marketplaces.

“Currently, all of these related groups are scattered,” said Steve Panish, the U’s assistant vice president for Capital Programs & Space Health Sciences. “For the first time, we will be able to bring them all together under one roof to amplify their strengths.”

The impact will extend to students beyond the School of Medicine—and beyond U of U Health.

“The Center for Medical Innovation attracts students from engineering, biochemistry, and other areas. We have a close working relationship with the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute (the University of Utah hub for student entrepreneurs),” Fassl said. “We receive requests from the industry asking for a workforce with a broader set of experiences. With the new building comes a new prototyping lab and an enormous expansion of our computer science facility. So the number of projects and students we can take on will be significant.”

GLOBAL HEALTH

The medical education building will advance the U’s commitment to improving health-care systems and outcomes around the world.

Plans call for nearly 15,000 square feet dedicated to Global Health. These work and meeting spaces will provide a central hub for the many global-health groups scattered throughout the health-sciences and main campuses.

These groups are improving the quality of health care in less-developed areas. Health problems that are easily treated in wealthier countries cost lives in many low- and middle-income communities.

“Our mandate is to cover the global space,” said Juan Carlos Negrette, director of Global Health. “Being global is different than being just international. International is only looking abroad; we have an introspection. We work with our Native American population, and at the same time, we work in the international space and we connect these dots. We see there are common needs across the globe.”

Many of the global health groups will remain in their current homes, but the medical education build- ing will offer a space to collaborate, teach, and innovate. Among the benefits that will result from this:

• It will enhance learning opportunities for U of U health science students—in particular, those in the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, and College of Pharmacy.

• Its tele-educational features will improve the international teaching of students and providers in foreign countries.

• It will strengthen the university’s ability to solicit and win contracts with foreign governments, a valuable source of revenue and prestige for the U.

• It will provide a more impressive space for foreign visitors. The U already has a footprint in more than 60 countries.

“We are present all over the planet. We could put a lot of pins on a map,” Negrette said. “The new facility will project the global-health spirit of the university, which is ambitious.”

CORE MED

Ask any physicians, and they can likely tell you about their first experience in the anatomy lab. School of Medicine students spend a significant portion of their education learning the human body by dissecting cadavers.

“It’s a rite of passage going back hundreds of years,” said assistant professor of neurobiology David Morton, PhD, who oversees the anatomy lab. “Knowing that the cadaver on the table was once a living person brings a profound humanity to the learning experience.”

Unfortunately, the U’s anatomy lab long ago became outdated. For more than two decades, it has been located in Research Park, more than a mile away from the School of Medicine.

Students waste time commuting to the anatomy lab and find it especially tedious during the dark winter months. They often consolidate their schedules in order to minimize trips.

“This means students spend less time here,” Mor- ton said. “Students need more opportunities to gain experience in anatomy.”

The current anatomy lab falls far short of modern standards—particularly with its lighting and ventilation. “You’re spending hours a day in a basement without windows,” said fourth-year medical student Addie Langner, the co-president of the School of Medicine student body.

The medical education building brings the anatomy lab into the same facility as the medical school, saving students countless hours of transportation time. Located on the top floor with modern high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) ventilation, the lab will include natural lighting.

“Now medical students will be able to move seamlessly from class to the lab, from the theoretical to the practical, within minutes,” Morton said.

The new anatomy lab will be close to related medical facilities, such as simulation and ultrasound spaces. Like so many other components of the medical education building, the anatomy lab will allow for opportunities to develop partnerships that advance education—partnerships that are almost impossible to form today. Morton foresees possibilities to work with areas such as the Dumke Center for Medical Simulation on high-tech mannequins.

“The more I learn about the different facets of the building, the more I get excited about what we could do,” Morton said.

In the Core Med area, classrooms will range from small to grand auditoriums. Large sections of students will be able to assemble for a class, easily break into small groups, and then quickly reassemble.

“What we are really looking for are flat classrooms with students facing one another in acoustically reasonable spaces, so that students can learn through conversation and curiosity-based learning,” Lamb said.

Small, private groups are where a lot of work happens in medical school, and in the new building, there will be no shortage of available workspaces that are conducive to hours upon hours of studying and team projects.

The Core Med area will also house School of Medicine administration, including the dean and senior leaders, admissions, registration, student support, and the Alumni Association. Their proximity will offer students access to the people and opportunities that can expand their learning—and it will build a stronger educational community.

“The building will provide an opportunity for our faculty to comingle with students to a much greater degree than now,” Lamb said.

PROMOTING WELLNESS AND SUCCESS

Medical professionals at all levels struggle with emotional and physical exhaustion due to high stress, also known as burnout.

This issue often starts in medical schools. Roughly half of all medical stu- dents suffer from feelings of anxiety or depression that can lead to burnout at some point during their education.

The reasons for this are complex, explains Michelle Vo, MD, director of student wellness at the School of Medicine. They include the difficulty of the curriculum and long hours of study, and the fact that many medical students have relentlessly pursued academic excellence throughout their lives.

“There’s a stigma associated with vulnerability,” Vo said. “People who go into medicine think they shouldn’t struggle, and they personalize it. They’re high-achieving, driven people who are accustomed to pushing through any sort of distress, and that often works for them until they hit a wall.”

Well-being and the idea of resilience—the ability to recover from difficult situations—have emerged as priorities in the academic-medicine community.

U of U Health is committed to creating environments where faculty, staff, residents, and students thrive, and to ensuring that doctors have the coping and wellness strategies that they will need throughout their lives. Vo’s office has significantly expanded during her five years at the School of Medicine, increasing from a staff of two to 12. She said that their work will be enhanced by the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, which will include student wellness as one of its focuses.

The medical education building will expand programming and resources essential to professional fulfillment. The building will have family spaces, easing an issue that affects many students—extended absences from loved ones. There will be spaces for consultations with licensed professionals, and peer, group, and crisis support.

The building will increase focus on the wellness of all students, in particular those from underrepresented groups, such as students of color.

This summer, Dr. Good announced that the School of Medicine would invest $1 million to create a scholarship fund, and asked for a challenge match from supporters, to be used for four-year, full-tuition scholarships for students underrepresented in medicine.

“To be good stewards of our community, we have to be as inclusive as possible,” Vo said. “We’ve been talking about well-being and community building [at U of U] for a very long time. We’re creating a space where everybody feels included.”

COLLABORATION SPACES

Of all the improvements, Lamb said that she most looks forward to the unanticipated ones. “It’s the chance encounters. Some of the best ideas come when we get up and take a walk,” she said.

With those encounters in mind, one-seventh of the medical education building is designated as common areas, which can be thought of as “collision spaces” designed to facilitate interactions among students who don’t often come into contact.

“Right now we can be very isolated,” Langner said. “The new building will encourage a lot more community among all of the health-science professions.”

Designed to make the building an accessible resource for both regular and occasional visitors, common areas include the forum, food service, and behind-the-scenes components such as information technology.

“There are a number of studies and cases—many even here at the U—citing how chance encounters lead to big ideas,” said Kai Kuck, PhD director of bioengineering at the U’s Department of Anesthesiology, whose laboratory is slated to be in the medical education building. “We have so many innovation powers that will all come together in that building. That’s going to be tremendous.”

THE TIME IS NOW

Two-thirds of all practicing physicians in Utah hail from the School of Medicine, and its stellar reputation extends far beyond the state; applicants to the school have tripled in the past three years.

When the current School of Medicine facility was constructed in 1965, it was an extension of the hospital and intertwined with live clinical facilities. As needs arose, new classrooms and collaborative buildings were added across campus wherever space was available.

The current facility has long been outdated, and bringing it up to modern standards is cost-prohibitive. A recent study found that the building was seismically unsound.

“So much about education has changed. The current building is just woefully out-of-date,” said Langner. She and other students provided input to guide the new design, along with faculty members, administration, and other key education and research stakeholders. “The medical education building creates a stronger, much more sophisticated environment for education. I think this will take us to a new level.”

CEMENTING OUR LEGACY

The medical education building is the latest step in U of U Health’s multi-year campus transformation.

University Hospital Area E, the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Sugar House Health Center have already been built and are serving thousands of patients daily. Roadwork is currently taking place, and construction on the medical education building is planned to begin in mid-2021.

When it opens two years later, the School of Medicine will be in a facility that offers unsurpassed learning opportunities—and it is designed to stay that way, even as medical education evolves.

Fundraising for the remaining budget of $75 million will continue through construction. Good said that he hopes all members of the U of U Health community will consider participating in the next chapter of the School of Medicine.

“We are at a moment in time when the need for public health could not be more evident,” Good said. “I am exceptionally proud of the work of all the members of our community who offered input into the design of the medical education building.

“This will be a signature addition to our campus. More importantly, it will serve to dramatically enhance our medical-education experience. Generations of health-care providers, researchers, and innovators will pass through its halls, then move out to serve the people of our state, nation, and the world.”