Tripp Umbach Economic Impact Study:

Phoenix Biomedical Campus Has Potential to Generate Billions Annually for State of Arizona

 

From: George Humphrey, (520) 626-7301                                                    Dec. 14, 2005

Susan Guthrie (Phoenix), (602) 631-4555

 

The Phoenix Biomedical Campus, currently in development in downtown Phoenix, could rank among Arizona’s leading “economic engines” by 2025, generating $1.1 billion to $2.1 billion in annual economic impact for the state of Arizona and providing stable employment for 14,000 to 24,000 Arizonans, according to a just-completed economic impact study.

 

Conducted by Tripp Umbach Healthcare Consulting, Inc., the leading provider of economic impact analysis for academic health centers in the nation, the study also found that by 2025 the campus has the potential to generate between $60 million and $110.2 annually in government revenue, providing the state of Arizona between $2 and $4 in annual government revenue for every $1 invested.

 

“We want to emphasize that those estimates are extremely conservative,” says Paul O. Umbach, principal in the firm, which has served more than 500 organizations worldwide, has completed two national studies for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and has conducted studies for more than 100 leading health care organizations.

 

The study first estimated the economic impact of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in fiscal year 2008, when the first class of medical students from The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix program begins classes in their newly renovated facilities on the Phoenix campus.  In 2008, the campus is anticipated to generate $77.1 million in overall economic impact.  Then, the study projects the economic impact of the entire Phoenix Biomedical Campus – employing different scenarios and assumptions – to show a range of potential economic impacts -- in 2010, 2015 and 2025.

 

The City of Phoenix provided land to establish the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, which includes the expansion of the UA College of Medicine to a four year program in Phoenix, in collaboration with Arizona State University; the internationally noted Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen); the future Arizona Biomedical Collaborative (with facilities to house researchers from the UA, ASU, including its Department of Biomedical Informatics and other organizations); possible future expansion of the UA College of Pharmacy; and many other potential collaborators. 

 

For comparison, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) in Tucson (less than 40 years old) contributes more than $2.5 billion annually to the state’s economy, according to a study conducted the AAMC in 2003.  (AHSC includes the UA Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy; the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health; University Medical Center and University Physicians Healthcare.)

 

Nationally, the economic impact of academic health centers is considered stable and typically is not affected by trends in the national economy.  In addition to the more than $20 billion a year in basic biomedical and clinical research conducted at our nation’s academic health centers, they serve a critical role in educating our nation’s next generation of physicians and other health care providers, as well as providing direct care for community members.

 

UA College of Medicine—Phoenix

 

In August 2004, the Arizona Board of Regents approved an agreement to expand the operations of the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix, in close collaboration with Arizona State University.  The new campus will open in July 2006 and the first class of 24 medical students will start in July 2007.  The State Legislature approved, and the Governor signed into law, a $7 million appropriation ($6 million for the UA; $1 million for ASU) to complete the first phase of the medical school expansion.

 

The medical college will be a key component of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.  Although Greater Phoenix boasts outstanding teaching hospitals, a strong community college and university system, significant biomedical research enterprises and other major health care enterprises, it remains the largest metropolitan area in the nation without a four-year allopathic (M.D.-trained) medical college. 

 

When fully developed, the UA College of Medicine—Phoenix program plans to graduate as many as 150 new physicians each year.  (The Tucson campus currently graduates 110 new physicians each year.) Employing state-of-the-art education technologies, the expanded College of Medicine will offer an integrated four-year program of basic science and clinical education for medical students, as well as training for resident-physicians and post-graduate students.  Recently ranked among the nation’s top 60 medical schools by U.S. News & World Report, the UA College of Medicine is among the smaller medical schools in the nation. Yet it ranks 55^th  among all medical schools in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and third in NIH funding among medical schools with less than 600 full-time faculty members.

 

To view a copy of the Economic Impact Report, please visit the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix web page at www.phoenix.arizona.edu or go to http://www.phoenix.medicine.arizona.edu/About/News/campus/Phoenix%20Biomedical%20Campus%20Report_12092005.pdf

 

For more information about Tripp Umbach, please visit: http://www.trippumbach.com

 

 

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Susan Guthrie
Senior Public Affairs Coordinator
University of Arizona, College of Medicine - Phoenix
4001 N. Third Street, Suite 401
Phoenix, Arizona  85012
602-631-6555 (office) 480-241-7738 (cell)
sguthrie@email.arizona.edu

www.phoenix.arizona.edu

 

To read about the expansion of the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix go to http://www.phoenix.medicine.arizona.edu/About/News/Campus/