Globe and Mail: U of T medical school to address shortage of health professionals
For more information, please contact:
Andrea Chin, Communications Director
Email: achin@dsai.ca
Don Schmitt, Principal
Email: dschmitt@dsai.ca
November 21, 2023 – The Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus (UTSC) is featured in an article by David McPherson for The Globe and Mail.
SAMIH fills a critical need for health care services in an underserved, fast-growing community and will be the gateway building to the university’s expanding campus, making it an important node for public transportation and pedestrian connection.
The 143,500-square-foot facility, the first medical school in the eastern Greater Toronto Area (and University of Toronto’s third), will include a clinical psychology clinic, a pharmacy clinic, a main-floor amphitheatre, an anatomy lab, a 21-bed clinical skills lab and 10 case-based learning instructional labs. An estimated 300 doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physical therapists in total will be trained annually.
“The most interesting part of this project is the fact that the building is not only a place where medical expertise is taught, but it is also connected to the community,” says Don Schmitt, Principal at Diamond Schmitt. “Our vision is to create a community between students, faculty and those that will use the building, and also with the academy’s greater surroundings.”
Beyond the classrooms and labs, SAMIH will serve as a health care hub, partnering with the broader medical community that includes the Scarborough Health Network, Michael Garron Hospital, Lakeridge Health, and Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences.
The five-storey atrium is open and bright, for example – “like a fissure in a boulder,” and forming the “beating heart” of the building, Mr. Schmitt says – designed as a meeting place where students, professors and community members can mingle.
SAMIH also harnesses natural energy using Toronto-based manufacturer Mitrex’s composite integrated solar cladding panels (building-integrated photovoltaics). Clad on three of the building’s four sides (plus standard photovoltaics on the roof), these cool grey multilayered panels not only shift colour with the weather, but the sun’s energy will provide up to 20 per cent of the building’s electricity.
Read the full article here.