Center to serve more than 400 health professionals
By: Paige Stein
Faculty and staff from Barry University’s School of Podiatric Medicine and the Physician Assistant Program began moving into the Center for Community Health and Minority Medicine on Monday, July 14. The move into the new facility, located at 320 NW 115th Street in Miami, is expected to continue throughout the summer.
The Center will serve more than 400 health professional students, including students from the College of Health Sciences. Working from a collaborative model, the Center will provide an enormous opportunity not only for the university but for the South Florida community it serves.
“A great many people have worked very hard on this project, and we’re tremendously proud to see it become a reality,” said Dr. Chet Evans, dean of the School of Podiatric Medicine. “The Center is going to be an important resource in our efforts to train the next generation of health professionals and will allow us to significantly extend our outreach in a number of South Florida communities.”
With its three-phase development plan, the Center will house classroom, research and clinical facilities used to focus on diseases that adversely affect minority and underserved communities. It will also facilitate the development of educational programs for the prevention, treatment and management of these diseases.
Both the School of Podiatric Medicine and the Physician Assistant Program have established traditions of service to minority and underserved communities. Since 1989, Barry’s Podiatric Primary Care Residency Training Program has trained 150 residents to work in medically underserved communities, while the Physician Assistant’s Cross Cultural Primary Care Training Program focuses on training physician assistants using a cultural competency curriculum. A medical Creole or medical Spanish course is required for all students.
Phase I of the center cost approximately $5 million with the total cost of constructing the Barry University Center for Community Health and Minority Medicine estimated at more than $18 million. It is anticipated that third- and fourth-year podiatric medical students will attend classes in the new facility in the fall 2008 semester, just 19 months after its groundbreaking in January of 2007.
