WS Chronicle

Two of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s preeminent School of Medicine programs will move to Wake Forest Innovation Quarter in the spring.

The Medical Center has announced that its nationally recognized Division of Public Health Sciences (PHS) and its nationally rated Physician Assistant (PA) program will relocate approximately 450 staff, faculty and students to state-of-the-art education and high-tech research space in the newly developed 525@Vine building, located downtown across Vine Street from Wake Forest Biotech Place. The move is expected to begin in March 2014.

“The move of Public Health Sciences and the Department of PA Studies to our downtown campus is part of our overall strategy to create synergies between our world-class research and education programs embodied in the School of Medicine and our commitment to public-private partnerships to advance the economic development of the region,” said Dr. John D. McConnell, chief executive officer of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

The Division of Public Health Sciences received more than $74 million in fiscal year 2013 in external research funding. Historically, the division has been ranked among the top two of similar groups nationally in National Institutes of Health funding. More than 260 of the division’s staff, faculty and students currently based in the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Winston-Salem will relocate to the third, fourth and fifth floors of 525@Vine.

Wake Forest Baptist’s Physician Assistant Studies program, which is rated by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s top physician assistant programs, will move 24 faculty and staff and its 128 students from its present location at Victoria Hall to the fifth floor of 525@Vine.

Bushardt

“This new space will allow us to scale up our program, support new curriculum advancements as well as create a high-tech home base for community-based interventions throughout the region,” said Reamer Bushardt, chair of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies.

Dr. Gregory L. Burke, director of Public Health Sciences added, “We’re excited to seek synergistic relationships with our new neighbors, including Inmar, the Emerging Technologies Center of Forsyth Tech and the numerous startup companies located in and around the Innovation Quarter.”