Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City has announced a $15 million gift to the University of Utah in support of a new building for its School of Medicine.

The gift will fund construction of a building to replace the current half-century-old structure, which is outdated, seismically unsound, and will need to be torn down eventually. Construction on the building will begin in 2019 and is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

The school trains two-thirds of the doctors who practice in Utah and graduates a hundred and twenty-five doctors and forty-four physician assistants annually.

"We face a critical physician shortage here in Utah, and training the next generation of physicians and healthcare providers is more important than ever," said A. Lorris Betz, interim executive dean of the medical school, senior vice president for health sciences, and CEO of University of Utah Health. "As health care changes, how we teach and train also needs to change. This isn’t just about a new building. This is about moving education forward, out of silos and into an interdisciplinary environment where collaboration and new ideas take shape — where we can focus on health, wellness, prevention, and treatments for disease. We are grateful to partner with Intermountain Healthcare for this important goal."

(Image credit: University of Utah)