Education

The UConn Health Center is home to the University of Connecticut's schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and the graduate school of biomedical science. The school of medicine is currently ranked second among New England public medical schools in research and third among them in primary care by U.S. News and World Report. The average medical school class size is approximately 80 students, the majority Connecticut residents. Medical students spend their clinical years rotating through John Dempsey Hospital, as well as Hartford Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and starting from the first year spend one half-day a week learning clinical skills at a community practice in Connecticut through the school's Student Continuity Practice. Since August 2009 the dean of the school of medicine has been renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Cato Laurencin.

The Lyman Maynard Stowe Library, located in the academic wing of the health center, was one of eight federally-funded National Network of Libraries of Medicine libraries from 1991-2001. The library now maintains EFTS, an electronic funds transfer system which supports payments between medical libraries all over the world. The library provides electronic access to thousands of journals and hundreds of books for medical and dental students and staff. The UConn Health Center now also houses the Hartford Medical Society Historical Library. This history of medicine collection is rich in 19th century American monographs, serials, pamphlets, manuscripts and artifacts.

Future

In 2007 University trustees approved plans to replace the existing hospital structure in Farmington with a new $500 million hospital at the same location. The new facility would have housed almost all hospital services, allowing the current facility to devoted more fully to academics and research. The new hospital would add roughly 200 beds, and would include upgraded facilities. The plan was later modified to include a merger with Hartford Hospital, which would have strengthened the academic relationship between the two institutions and made the construction of the new hospital more economically sustainable, created more jobs in the central Connecticut region, and put central Connecticut on the map as a prominent health center.

However, there was some opposition to the proposal for a new hospital from other hospitals in the area, especially St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center, and the governor M. Jodi Rell and other state politicians; this led to delays and necesitated refinements of the plan. In late 2009, a few hours after the labor union of UConn Health Center staff—excluding those with MDs (the majority of the faculty) since MDs cannot unionize under federal law—the plan was abandoned altogether. UConn is currently considering other options.

External links

• UConn Health Center
• Lyman Maynard Stowe Library

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