A who’s who of academic and political figures wielded red and black shovels to mark the symbolic beginning of the university’s new medical school. The 92,000-square-foot building will be funded through a public-private partnership. Earlier this year, the Georgia General Assembly provided $50 million for construction. That amount will be augmented by some $100 million in private contributions.
Most of the space will be used for medical education, like a gross anatomy lab and simulation suites. The remaining space will contain biomedical research laboratories. The building will also have student support spaces like study rooms and lounges.
The building will provide the UGA School of Medicine with enough space to have 120 students per class, although the first classes will be smaller.
The medical school comes at a time when Georgia needs more medical professionals, “Georgia is growing,” Chancellor of the University System of Georgia Sonny Perdue said, “And that means we are going to need more health care, and people are going to get it here and across the state.”
Georgia is ranked 40 across the U.S. for the number of active patient care physicians per capita, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The number of primary care physicians comes in just after, at 41, and at 44 for the number of general surgeons per capita.
