NORFOLK, Va. — On Friday, Old Dominion University (ODU) and Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) celebrated merging to create a new integrated health sciences center that school officials say will enhance health care in Hampton Roads.
According to ODU, the integrated center will be named Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences and will be located on ODU’s campus. It will serve as the overarching structure for all health sciences programming and operations, including the Ellmer College of Health Sciences, the Ellmer School of Nursing, the EVMS Medical Group, the EVMS School of Health Professions, the EVMS School of Medicine and the Joint School of Public Health.
However, the partnership didn’t come without its challenges.
“There were a number of key items to work through. We both had two different boards, so it just took us coming together, sitting down, and working through critical details,” said Brian Hemphill, the president of ODU.
Along with the center, donors will provide millions of dollars in scholarships to students and retain medical professionals in the Commonwealth.
“Those scholarships are encouraging students to stay and be here. There are residences, our students who are going into nursing and physical therapy, and we want them here. You heard our donors be pretty clear about that, so this [will] be a step forward,” said Hemphill.
According to ODU, the new partnership, which will be effective on July 1, 2024, will establish the Commonwealth’s most complex and largest academic health sciences center with 56 academic programs.
Both schools firmly believe that this partnership is not just a step but a leap in the right direction for the future of healthcare in Virginia.
“This will allow us to really focus on expanding our classrooms to meet the incredible demands that we see in the future and to collectively elevate the level of care, research, and education that we offer our students,” said Alfred Abuhamad M.D., the president, provost and dean of EVMS Board of Visitors.