Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare have announced plans for new, joint research center in Tallahassee.
Last year, the Florida Legislature awarded FSU the money to build the academic health center in Tallahassee. In a Wednesday news conference at TMH, University President Richard McCollough said the project will be “transformational for the region.”
“Not only to sure up the health of our community health care but also to help increase the already healthcare that we have in Tallahassee by bringing researchers that are also physicians to the region,” he said.
The facility will expand FSU’s current medical instruction program. TMH President and CEO Mark O’Bryant praised the partnership.
“We’ve been partners with FSU for a long period of time,” he said. “But the announcements we make today are going to cement that partnership even further.”
FSU and TMH are also partners on a shared medical campus currently under construction in Panama City Beach. That campus is meant to service a massive retirement community that’s also under construction nearby.
In a statement released to FSU employees and students, McCollugh said the projects, called “FSU Health,” are meant to build a “healthcare ecosystem throughout North Florida” in response to population growth in the panhandle. He also noted that many of the counties are medically underserved.
According to the state, of the 29 Florida counties considered “fiscally constrained” (meaning, they don’t generate enough revenue on their own to cover their infrastructure costs), nearly half are in North Florida. McCollough also said the Tallahassee and Panama City Beach projects will provide more opportunities for FSU medical students to have residencies and clinical rotations.
As a state, Florida has been working to increase the number of residencies in an effort to retain doctors amid a nationwide physician shortage.