KJZZ is a service of Rio Salado College,
and Maricopa Community Colleges

Copyright © 2024 KJZZ/Rio Salado College/MCCCD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

ASU makes progress toward establishing new medical school, could admit students by 2026

Arizona State University is making progress toward establishing its new School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. ASU is officially an applicant with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accreditation body for medical schools.

Dr. Sherine Gabriel, ASU Health executive vice president, said the new medical school could get preliminary accreditation by 2025 and start admitting students in 2026.

“That will mean provisional accreditation in 2028 and the inaugural class graduating in 2030, which is when final accreditation happens," Gabriel said. "So it is a very long process, but we are well on our way.”

ASU has also launched a nationwide search for the school’s first dean and held consultations with similar schools across the country.

"Our medical school is not going to be traditional," Gabriel said. "It's going to have embedded within it, engineering, AI, data science and also a strong thread of humanities. One of the central tenets of ASU is the fusion of disciplines, and we are fusing all of those disciplines to create a unique, new curriculum." 

ASU announced the launch of the school in June 2023 as part of a larger Arizona Board of Regents’ effort called the AZ Healthy Tomorrow initiative.

“Barrow and Phoenix Children’s [Hospital] have already agreed to be our educators for neurology and pediatrics respectively and we have a number of others that have agreed to rotations and electives," Gabriel said.

More stories from KJZZ

Senior field correspondent Bridget Dowd has a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.