About 500 people gathered on a sunny Friday morning for today’s official grand opening ceremony for the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
Well-wishers heard about the high-tech center that is NAU’s Phoenix home of two high-demand and highly competitive health care fields, physician assistant and physical therapy. It also houses the Phoenix campus for the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine.
The extensive technology throughout the six-story building emphasizes human interaction. For example, the fourth floor features 24 rooms set up to replicate the clinic rooms of a doctor’s office, which are fitted with unobtrusive cameras. Students will work with standardized patients—professionally trained to “present” patient-like conditions—while being monitored by faculty from a separate room.
Dignitaries at the grand opening ceremony included NAU President John Haeger; Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton; Eileen Klein, Gov. Jan Brewer’s chief of staff; and Ann Weaver Hart, president of the University of Arizona.