Rochester Hills-based Oakland University and William Beaumont Hospitals of Southfield-based Beaumont Health have extended their affiliation agreement through 2041.
This will allow Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine medical students to continue training at Beaumont. It also offers both organizations enhanced research capabilities. Students train at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak; Beaumont Hospital, Troy; and Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe.
“The 20-year extension reaffirms that Oakland University and William Beaumont Hospital are deeply committed to providing a premier educational environment for developing OUWB medical students into compassionate, ethical, and highly skilled physicians,” says Dr. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, president of Oakland University.
The amended agreement, which was approved by Oakland University’s board on Feb. 15 and Beaumont’s board on Feb. 17, enhances capabilities for researchers from both organizations by allowing them to share data more easily and expand the amount of research conducted.
“It is critically important to provide exceptional training and education for the next generation of physicians,” says John Fox, president and CEO of Beaumont Health. “We are thrilled to extend our partnership with Oakland University, and I know our physicians, nurses, and staff are very pleased to continue working with OUWB’s outstanding medical students.”
The origins of the affiliation agreement date to the mid-2000s with exploratory discussions among community leaders and officials at Oakland University and Beaumont. They concluded that the combined faculty, staff, and infrastructure resources of both institutions would provide a strong base on which to build a medical school.
In January 2007, OU and Beaumont submitted a letter of intent to the Liaison Committee on Medicine Education, an accrediting body for medical education programs leading to medical doctor degrees in the U.S. and Canada, to initiate the formal process of accrediting a new allopathic medical school. The initiative was approved by the boards of both institutions.
At the time, officials said establishment of Oakland County’s first medical school and Michigan’s first new medical school in nearly 50 years would have an economic impact of up to $1 billion annually and help address a then-projected shortage of physicians in the state.
The school welcomed its first class in 2011 and has since graduated 548 physicians. It has about 500 students enrolled.
Approval of the amended affiliation agreement comes almost exactly one year after the medical school received full reaccreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education for eight years, the maximum time possible.
