Growing needs and diminishing resources have created an urgency for a more diverse health-care workforce with interdisciplinary skills – and Cleveland State University is leading the way in a city renowned for world-class health care. Set to open in 2015, CSU’s new Center for Innovation in Health Professions will foster interprofessional education in classrooms and high-tech “collaboratories,” where future physicians, nurses and health professionals will learn to work together. A team approach to health-care education will ensure better health, better care and lower health-care costs.

In addition to housing programs offered by our School of Nursing and our School of Health Sciences, this iconic building will be the home of the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED)-Cleveland State University Partnership for Urban Health, a trailblazing joint venture aimed at yielding primary care physicians specifically trained to address underserved urban communities.

The NEOMED-CSU Partnership encourages economically disadvantaged youth from the Cleveland area to complete undergraduate coursework at CSU, enroll in the College of Medicine at NEOMED to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree and return after residency to work in medically underserved areas in Northeast Ohio. At least half of the students’ training will take place in Cleveland, including clinical work at community health centers.

The NEOMED-CSU Partnership is recognized as the lead program for the Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, a national organization devoted to improving health care education and increasing diversity in health professions.

The NEOMED-CSU Partnership also has been selected to participate in the Urban Universities for HEALTH Learning Collaborative, a national academic initiative that aims to investigate approaches to improve the health of urban communities by developing their health care workforce. A grant totaling more than $400,000 over a four-year period recently was awarded to NEOMED and CSU in support of their partnership by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health.