Maine Lawmakers and Portland City Councilors Get First Look at UNE’s New Medical Education Center

A dozen lawmakers and members of the Portland City Council looked around at the massive tiered, 240-seat lecture hall with its state-of-the-art, 48-foot-long video screen in the University of New England’s new medical education center, and someone in the front row quipped: “You could host the Maine Legislature here.”

Jane Carreiro, D.O. ‘88, dean of UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and vice president for Health Affairs, just smiled. Carreiro served as a tour guide for the small group who got a first look at the Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences (HBACHS) that will help grow UNE’s medical school and, with that, the number of future doctors in Maine — thereby addressing a critical area of need in the state. 

Already the largest provider of health care professionals in Maine, UNE will increase its medical school’s class size from 165 to 200 when the new health education center opens this summer.  

Since 1995, UNE has awarded 15,500 degrees in the health sciences to health care providers, many of whom remained in Maine to help care for the state’s rapidly aging population. But more needs to be done, said Gwen Mahon, M.Sc., Ph.D., UNE’s provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, when she addressed the group of lawmakers and councilors on Jan. 10. 

Mahon pointed out that 50% of medical school students stay to work in the place where they conduct their clinical or residency experience — but those clinical spots are not plentiful in Maine. 

“Expanding those will really help our workforce,” Mahon said. “While we're here in southern Maine, we very much serve the whole state. Our students in all of our health profession programs train and ultimately work all over the state, particularly in rural communities. We would love to work with you to expand clinical and residency training opportunities in Maine communities.”

The tour was co-hosted by House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, who lives in Biddeford and has observed the growth of UNE’s osteopathic medical school there. The new 113,000-square-foot health education center on Stevens Avenue near downtown Portland clearly delighted him, as Fecteau posed for photos for social media.

Fecteau said that, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 30% of health care professionals are reaching retirement age.

“That's a significant challenge on the horizon for Maine and for the health care sector,” Fecteau told the group. “We know that the University of Maine System does not have a medical school. So, what's happening here at UNE is really the footprint for what we have in Maine for preparing students for future careers (in health care). The work that you all are doing here at UNE to prepare students for the future is significant.” 

The $93 million, state-of-the-art center was made possible by a transformative gift of $30 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation, the largest gift in UNE history. Another $5 million in federal appropriations was made possible by Maine’s senior senator Susan Collins, who twice in the past five years welcomed UNE President James Herbert to testify about ways to alleviate the national shortages in the health care workforce before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

The new health sciences center allowed for the relocation of the University’s medical school from the Biddeford Campus to Portland to create an integrated health science campus that’s unlike any of its kind in New England. The newly renamed Portland Campus for the Health Sciences is also home to UNE’s dental college as well as a host of programs in the Westbrook College of Health Professions, such as physician assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, dental hygiene, nutrition, psychiatric nursing, and nurse anesthesia.

The center will facilitate the team-based approach to health care taught at UNE, as students studying a variety of health disciplines work side by side in teams, allowing for the practice of interprofessional education, which studies have shown leads to improved outcomes for patients. The design of the building speaks to that interconnected team approach. Video capability throughout the four-story building means students can observe the teaching and training taking place elsewhere in the building.

The health center includes a suite of 20 exam rooms for patient simulations — doubling the University’s current capacity, an Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine patient clinic, where members of the public can receive treatment — as they have for 30 years, and a donor lab with 50 dissection tables. The new center also offers students several study areas and a spacious break room, where they can eat together.

The building was designed to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and WELL Building standards, which means the design creates an environment that positively impacts human health and wellbeing.

At the end of the 40-minute tour, Portland City Councilor April Fournier said she was excited about the possibilities the new center held for Portland — and Maine.

“It’s important that we look at how we can diversify and create a little bit more equity with health care,” Fournier said. “I think that comes with being able to treat patients right in the community that you want to serve. Where we have the largest and most diverse population in the state, it's so important to be able to have doctors that are learning in the community that they would potentially serve. It’s really exciting to see this growth right here in Portland.”