Issue link: https://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1545861
Expectations for the Wichita Biomedical Campus are running about as high as its eye-catching eight-story main tower now taking shape downtown. "Quite honestly, what we are building is beyond what any of us currently have or could have imagined," said Elisha Brumfield, D.O., medical director of the Simulation Center at KU School of Medicine-Wichita. What has faculty members such as Brumfield so excited? More and better designed learning spaces, updated technology in those spaces and enhanced opportunities for interprofessional collaboration and education top the list. The enthusiasm is shared by KU School of Medicine-Wichita's partners in the building — Wichita State University, WSU Tech and KU School of Pharmacy. "There really are two kinds of interprofessional education," said Gregory Hand, Ph.D., dean of the College of Health Professions at WSU. "One is formalized, where groups get together to do case studies and those types of things. The other is where people just bump into each other and have conversations. What we've not had is that opportunity to bump into each other in the hallway and talk about things that are happening — technology and innovations." Now that they will, Hand said, "In some ways, I think that's going to be more beneficial than the structured IPE (interprofessional education)." Here's a look at three Wichita Biomedical Campus spaces that will represent significant upgrades over what KU Wichita now uses. ANATOMY LAB Currently, medical students make use of the anatomy lab located in Newman University's Bishop Gerber Science Center, where students in Newman's nurse anesthesia program also study. Newman's lab has four anatomical donor stations. The lab at the Wichita Biomedical Campus will have 12 to accommodate anticipated enrollment increases at KU Wichita. Interprofessional education and less formal collaboration should thrive on new campus 26