The Arizona Biomedical Collaborative and Phoenix Biomedical Campus
Arizona Biomedical Collaborative
University, Private, Government
Private, Government
Public
62,476 at Arizona State University; 38,000 at the University of Arizona (2009)
Doctorate
No contact information supplied
For many years, Phoenix, Arizona was the only major city and metropolitan area in the United States without an academic research hospital or medical school. The solution conceived by city, state, and university leaders was the creation of the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative and Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The Collaborative is a partnership between Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Arizona (UA) and allows each university to leverage its unique biomedical and science programs to support an innovative research campus serving metropolitan Phoenix. Budgets and administration of the campus are shared between the two institutions. Consultants involved with the project believe that the Phoenix Biomedical Campus could become a leading revenue generator within its first 20 years. Their projections predict the creation of more than $2.1 billion in economic activity annually and employment for as many as 24,000. The campus is also helping to meet the need to supply more doctors in the state and provide a higher level of medical care to citizens.
Availability of jobs to support a highly skilled workforce and access to comprehensive health care are two necessities for the sustained development of growing economies and metropolitan areas. For many years, one of the largest cities and metropolitan areas in the United States lacked an academic research hospital to support these needs. Officials from the City of Phoenix and the State of Arizona worked with public research universities to overcome this obstacle. The development of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix, Arizona demonstrates the success that can be achieved through collaboration among governments, private sector partners, and even rival academic institutions.
Perhaps the greatest success of the collaboration has been its success in efficiently meeting the region’s needs without duplicating the efforts of the state’s two public research universities. Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Arizona (UA) are often regarded as rivals, competing not only athletically, but also academically as they seek to attract the brightest students from the state and region. Arizona State University’s largest campus sits just a few miles from the heart of downtown Phoenix. The university operates strong bioscience and nursing programs, but lacked a medical school to help fill the gap from within the metropolitan area. Founding and accrediting a medical school where none already existed at ASU would have taken years to complete. Approximately 115 miles south of Phoenix in Tucson, Arizona, the University of Arizona (UA) operates a nationally ranked medical school, research hospital, and a strong pharmacy program. The best solution, it seemed, would be to bring together the two institutions to serve metropolitan Phoenix. Observers might have imagined that relocating part of UA’s program to Phoenix would amount to an academic declaration of war or invasion of turf. The results have proved any skeptics wrong. Despite the challenges of cooperation, the project has favored collaboration as a means to leverage the strengths of each partner, giving Phoenix the foundation for a premier biomedical campus.
The institutions’ work would not have been possible without the support of the City of Phoenix and State of Arizona. The mayor and city council simultaneously engaged in the first phase of an expansion of Arizona State University into the center of downtown Phoenix, which included approval of a $233 million general obligation bond referendum, and development of the planned Phoenix Biomedical Campus just blocks away. In 2006, 28 acres of land were allocated for the biomedical campus on a site that formerly housed a public secondary school. Construction quickly began on a series of state of the art research facilities to support the faculty, students, and other researchers who would work at the site. The state has also helped to fund construction of some of the facilities.
The private sector has done its part to support the initiative as well. Interest in partnering with the new Arizona Biomedical Collaborative quickly spread and a number of corporations and research foundations have joined on. Area hospitals have also sought to construct facilities near the campus to begin providing professional training opportunities and health care services.
It is too soon to determine how successful the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative can be in achieving the goal of fostering the growth of a thriving biomedical industry in Arizona. If it achieves nothing more, the partnership has helped to establish the foundation for what is expected to become an economic engine and state of the art medical facility serving the State of Arizona. Expansion plans for the campus are being considered, including reclamation of vacant or underutilized property nearby to house additional facilities. Area hospitals are involved in planning efforts and are eager to utilize the talents of the faculty and students to increase the number of doctors in the region while also providing medical care to the area. If collaboration between the state’s universities, government agencies, and private sector can continue to direct the evolution of the health care industry in the state, leaders and supporters anticipate future return on investment to prove the project a success.
