The University of Illinois will consider two competing proposals for medical schools in the Spring. The Board of trustees agreed at their meeting in Chicago today that they'll look at plans for a proposed engineering-based medical school for the Urbana campus in March.
That plan will be compared with one aimed at expanding the existing med school based out of the University's Chicago campus. Urbana Chancellor Phyllis Wise has pushed for a new med school, which would be geared toward engineering-focused approaches to medicine.
Engineering professor Rashid Bashir told the Board the med school would be an opportunity for the University to be a leader in modern medicine.
"Our healthcare system, we all agree, is broken. We need to look into the future and try to see if we can wipe the slate clean ... We know how to alter society at its very core with this healthcare system in terms of education and research. And I believe that the world looks to us for exactly that."
The school has been proposed as partnership between the U of I and Carle Health Systems. If approved, the Urbana school would be separately accredited from the University of Illinois at Chicago's medical school.
