The new College of Medicine at Florida International University won’t hold its first classes until next year, but it’s already changing the face of medicine in Miami-Dade County [“Med School Startups,” July 2007, FloridaTrend.com].
 Doctor training at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. Under an agreement with FIU’s med school, the medical center will help train students. [Photo: Ben Thacker] |
Likewise, FIU has also signed an agreement with Jackson Health System that will create teaching programs at Jackson North Medical Center for FIU medical students. The agreement calls for FIU doctors to provide medical care to uninsured patients at Jackson. Members of the FIU medical faculty will immediately work at Jackson, and medical students will begin working with patients at Jackson North in 2011.
In addition, county commissioners have approved a $10-million bond package for an ambulatory center at the new College of Medicine at FIU-University Park. The center will be available to the general public and include outpatient surgery services and a diagnostic center. By the end of the decade, the Florida Department of Health will move its Miami-Dade headquarters to University Park.
“The ambulatory care center will be an important component of what will be the only public medical school in south Florida,” says Dr. John Rock, dean of the College of Medicine, “a new type of medical school, dedicated to training a new generation of doctors with a commitment to serving the community.”