Leaders from East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, ECU Health and across North Carolina came together for the Center for Medical Education Building groundbreaking on Brody’s campus.
The groundbreaking marked a new era for health care in eastern North Carolina and for rural communities across the state. With the new 195,000-square-foot, seven-story building set to be fully constructed in 2027, the incoming class sizes at Brody are expected to increase significantly – from fewer than 100 this fall to more than 120 by 2027.
“With this building, the state of North Carolina is affirming that rural medical education and health care matters, and that Brody has lived its mission and can solve these complex issues that rural health care faces,” said Dr. Michael Waldrum, chief executive officer of ECU Health and dean of Brody. “Rural health care is in crisis in America, and we are working to create the model for rural health care.
We are leaning into those issues and solving those systematic problems. This facility is emblematic of that work as we train the future physicians for this region and the state.”
The building, Dr. Waldrum said, is designed to fit the unique mission of Brody while providing state-of-the-art technology and amenities to attract and develop the best physicians in the East and North Carolina.
Dr. Jason Higginson, chief health officer at ECU Health and executive dean of Brody, said during the event that the nearly 200 attendees showed how grateful the community is to see support for Brody and the region.
“This is one of the biggest investments in eastern North Carolina,” Dr. Higginson said. “The Brody School of Medicine is here for the community and to see that support in return has been amazing. The school has a nearly 50-year history of developing physicians for eastern North Carolina, and we plan on continuing that. This facility is a great step in how we’re working to meet the needs of this region and state.”
Speakers also included ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers, University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans and fourth-year Brody student Shantell McLaggan.
The future-Dr. McLaggan spoke to the family atmosphere cultivated at Brody and how excited she is for future students to experience it inside a new facility, offering the very best tools for students to succeed.
Dr. Michael Lang, chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health at the Brody School of Medicine and ECU Health, is a Brody graduate himself and was born and raised in eastern North Carolina. He said he’s proud to be a part of Brody and the health system and believes the investment will benefit eastern North Carolina and rural areas and expand upon the decades of success the school has experienced.
“What I’m hoping is that we’ll be able to provide an even better pipeline to get physicians into these rural communities,” Dr. Lang said. “The small towns of eastern North Carolina, just like small towns everywhere, are desperately missing doctors. What I’m hoping is, as we expand the class, we will be putting more doctors of all sorts of specialties into those rural areas.”
The new Center for Medical Education Building also serves as a promise to the East and a commitment to the shared mission of Brody and ECU Health to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina.
“These beautiful rural communities that we talk about are so important to the fabric of North Carolina,” Dr. Waldrum said. “They are dependent on us to come up with the model for rural health care, to deliver care and educate the future doctors. I’m so excited to celebrate that with you today as we put a shovel in the ground and mark this historic step forward.”
Resources
Rural Health Day at ECU Health
More information on the Center for Medical Education Building