EAST LANSING (AP) – Michigan State University is moving forward with its plan to expand its medical school into Grand Rapids.
University trustees yesterday unanimously approved a resolution authorizing “all necessary and appropriate” actions to create the west Michigan school, which supporters say could boost the quality of health-related research and medical care in the region.
Some second-year students from Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine are expected to be studying in Grand Rapids by the fall of 2008. Plans call for the west Michigan medical school to have a new building for its four-year program by 2010. The building could cost $60 million to $70 million.
The resolution approved yesterday gives school officials and President Lou Anna Simon authority to sign contracts with local hospitals and other partners, recruit faculty members and seek national accreditation.
“This could very well be a model for how medical education needs to proceed in the future,” Simon said.
Grand Rapids is about 70 miles west of the Michigan State campus. But the area offers a larger mix of health care providers, researchers and potential financial donors to boost health education, life sciences research and potentially improve health care, supporters of the expansion say.
Michigan State’s board of trustees approved the concept of the medical school expansion in 2004. The school will keep a medical school presence in East Lansing, but much of the school’s administration and focus will move to west Michigan.
Key partners in the project include the Van Andel Institute, Spectrum Health, St. Mary’s Hospital, Michigan Medical Physician Corp. and Grand Valley State University.
“Now is the time to move from planning to implementation,” said Marsha Rappley, acting dean of Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine.
The college has about 480 students.
A 2004 study found that a medical school in Grand Rapids similar to the one planned could generate up to 2,800 jobs and more than $1.5 billion in economic activity.