What do doctors think of UB 2020 plan?

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo cleared the way for major funding for the University at Buffalo.

The developers of the UB 2020 plan want UB's Medical School to become one of the most prestigious institutions in the country.

UB 2020 calls for moving the medical school downtown, to become part of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. That's a great opportunity to design a new medical school from scratch. Tuesday's announcement marks a major milestone in the progress of medical care and medical education in Buffalo.

UB Chair of Pediatrics Dr. Teresa Quattrin said, "This is a great day. I would not have missed this announcement for anything; it's very exciting."

The excitement is about bringing the components of the medical school together. Now, the basic scientists and the first and second year medical students are housed in the UB campus on Main and Bailey, and the physicians and advanced medical students are in the hospitals. The two groups seldom see each other. That's a real disadvantage.

Dr. Michael Cain, the dean of UB's School of Medicine, said, "This would be an opportunity to put all of these together in one integrated, prospectively planned, modern day academic health center."

Dr. John Tomaszewski was recently recruited to chair UB's Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences. The anticipation of that close collaboration helped him decide to come to the school.

"It's very clear that the successful academic medical centers, currently and in the future, will be highly integrated and that means they have to be programmatically integrated and, I think, physically integrated," said Dr. Tomaszewski.

There will be three major building projects. One is the medical school itself, one is a medical office building, and the third is a new Women and Children's Hospital. They'll be built simultaneously, and the whole thing should be complete by the fall of 2016.