The University of Arizona College of Medicine opened its doors in 1967, culminating years of effort by Arizonans to build a medical college.
Admission of the first class of 32 students was a triumph for the community leaders, educators, legislators, regents, physicians and others who dedicated themselves to keeping the vision of a medical college for the state of Arizona clearly in focus.
In 1963, after more than two decades of debate about the location of Arizona's medical school, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill by just two votes to appropriate funds to hire a dean and begin planning the College at The University of Arizona in Tucson.
The following year, Merlin K. DuVal, MD, arrived at the UA as founding dean of the College of Medicine and set out to build a medical school from the ground up. With tireless enthusiasm, determination and steadfast community support, Dr. DuVal laid the foundation for what would emerge as one of the top medical schools in the West.
Among his first efforts were designing and choosing a site for the original facility and raising the funds to build it. In what Dr. DuVal called "a people's campaign," a citizens' group known as Founders for Arizona Medical Education (FAME) raised nearly $3 million to build the Basic Sciences Building, where the first classes would be taught. In summer 1965, a federal matching grant of $4.3 million was awarded, and construction soon was under way on the grounds of a one-time polo field.
John D. Palmer, MD, PhD, who came to the UA in 1966 as a professor of pharmacology, recalled, "The unknown factor about coming to the UA was that the place literally was a 'hole in the ground' when I took the job." Dr. Palmer was one of a handful of faculty members that Dr. DuVal recruited to help with the initial design and planning of the Arizona Medical Center, as it was called. He remembered that this group selected the first class, bought equipment, recruited the rest of the initial 21 faculty members and designed the first two years of the curriculum.
Just two months after the first UA College of Medicine class graduated in 1971, University Hospital (now University Medical Center), the primary teaching hospital for the College, was completed, and the College of Medicine was about to become a cornerstone of the thriving Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) on the UA campus.
Louis J. Kettel, MD, served as dean of the College of Medicine from 1977-1987, succeeding Dr. DuVal (founding dean 1964-1971; acting dean 1973-1974), Jack M. Layton, MD (acting dean 1971-1973) and Neal A. Vanselow, MD (1974-1977). In his 1979 historical perspective on early planning for the College, Dr. Kettel wrote, "Moving rapidly the concept evolved of a health sciences institution which could always react to and move with a changing society in its health care and scientific needs."
As the College developed its strong educational program, it also became a resource of new knowledge for Arizona. For example, early accomplishments included the development of a perinatal and high-risk pregnancy transport service that brought great acclaim to the state and was credited for a dramatic decrease in Arizona's infant mortality rate.
The College's commitment to diagnosis, treatment and research into causes of respiratory illness led to the establishment of the Arizona Respiratory Sciences Center (now the Arizona Respiratory Center), designated the first Center of Excellence at the UA College of Medicine in 1971.
Recognition of the great need for cancer research in the state spurred the renowned cancer program at the College and plans for the first major building expansion, the freestanding Arizona Cancer Center, which was dedicated in 1986.
In support of a multitude of programs addressing wide-ranging concerns for the people of Arizona, other Centers of Excellence and program initiatives evolved, and the College of Medicine quickly became established as one of the nation's premier teaching and research institutions.
Striving constantly for innovation and excellence in the classroom, the laboratory and the clinic, faculty members have contributed to vast improvements in people's lives through an array of pioneering medical achievements.
As early as 1983, medical students at the UA College of Medicine were taking required clerkships in internal medicine, pediatrics, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology and family practice, as well as clinical electives, in the Phoenix area. In 1992, a Phoenix program was established officially, allowing third- and fourth-year UA medical students to complete rotations at affiliated hospitals in Phoenix.
In August 2004, the Arizona Board of Regents approved an agreement to expand the operations of the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix, in partnership with Arizona State University, to a four-year program. An unprecedented statewide collaboration among parties that included the Arizona Board of Regents, the three state universities, the City of Phoenix, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Phoenix-area teaching hospitals, guided by a governor-appointed commission, led to the establishment of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix.
The 15.7-acre property, donated by the City of Phoenix, was then the site of TGen and historic buildings that once housed Phoenix Union High School. Following extensive renovations, those buildings became home to The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University, which admitted its first class of first-year medical students in July 2007.
The Phoenix Biomedical Campus grew quickly to include the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative, the ASU Department of Biomedical Informatics and expansion of the UA College of Pharmacy, along with TGen and the Phoenix program.
In June 2008, the Arizona Legislature passed a budget that allocated $1 billion to the three state universities for improvements and new construction. Of that, $470 million is designated for the expansion of the biomedical campus in Phoenix. These funds are expected to allow plans to go forward to construct a medical education building, a second research building and related facilities, supporting the mission of the Phoenix program to expand and further address the shortage of physicians in Arizona.
In July 2006, as the Phoenix campus was preparing to open, the College of Medicine implemented a new and exciting curriculum for all incoming students, beginning with the entering class on the Tucson campus. The curriculum focuses on integration of the educational experience and features, among other advances in medical education, clinical experience with clinical mentors from the first day of classes. Throughout the first two years, the curriculum combines the traditional basic science disciplines and their application to the clinical sciences in integrated blocks. Major themes that focus on humanities, evidence-based decision-making, public health, preventive medicine, health-care systems and aging are woven through the blocks and continue through students' third- and fourth-year experiences, exposing them to a high level of humanism and professionalism as they progress toward becoming physicians.
A relative "newcomer" among medical schools in the United States, the UA College of Medicine lays claim to innumerable accomplishments over its 40-plus years, and it is poised to continue a rich history of service, not just to Arizonans but to health care worldwide.
UA College of Medicine
1501 N. Campbell Avenue
PO Box 245017
Tucson, Arizona 85724
Tel: (520) 626-4555
UA College of Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with ASU
550 E. Van Buren Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
Tel: (602) 827-2001
Fax: (602) 827-2074