The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria is preparing for major staff and facility expansions it says would have a multi-million dollar economic impact on the city.
UICOMP announced Monday the Peoria campus will begin admitting first-year medical students in 2017.
As it stands, first-year students begin medical school at the U o f I's Urbana campus, and for subsequent years, they may transition to U of I medical school campuses across the state, including Peoria.
UICOMP says the addition of first-year classes would bring 55 more medical students to Peoria annually. The school says the additional students would create a need for 20 new faculty and staff and would generate an estimated $2.6 million in the local economy. The data is based on an economic impact study by the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council.
The upgrades are part of a wider restructuring plan that aims to improve student recruitment and physician retention in central Illinois, UICOMP said in a news release.
The school says it will spend about $2.5 million in the next 18 months on facility upgrades, in preparation for the additional 55 students annually. The upgrades include a $1.5 million dollar anatomy lab for cadaver dissection and a technology-rich classroom for team-based learning.