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The University of New England today inaugurated the Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences, a state-of-the-art medical education facility now serving as the new home of Maine’s medical school, marking a transformative moment in the future of medical and health professions education in Maine.

The opening of the new facility, celebrated with a formal ceremony on �Ӱ���Ƶ’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences, culminates the relocation of the �Ӱ���Ƶ College of Osteopathic Medicine from Biddeford to Portland, placing �Ӱ���Ƶ’s medical students in close proximity to the state’s largest hospitals and clinics and most densely populated communities, while also placing it closer to rural northern areas of the state. 

“Over the past two-plus decades, �Ӱ���Ƶ has emerged as a unique institution essential to the health of our home state, acutely attuned to industry needs, and providing wave after wave of graduates expertly equipped to tackle the latest workforce needs,” said �Ӱ���Ƶ President James Herbert. “The impact of this facility will reach far beyond Portland to the entire state of Maine, and indeed, New England more broadly, increasing the number of doctors we can graduate each year at a time when their expertise is desperately needed in communities throughout the state and region.” 

The 110,000-square-foot Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences is the final piece in bringing together nearly all of �Ӱ���Ƶ’s health professions programs on a single, integrated campus — including medicine, dentistry, physician assistant, pharmacy, nursing, and the allied health fields — creating a fully interprofessional learning environment that is unprecedented in New England.

�Ӱ���Ƶ is Maine’s largest educator of health professionals, having awarded more than 16,000 health sciences degrees since 1995. The University’s medical school, founded in 1978, has graduated more than 4,000 physicians, with more than half entering primary care and 40% of those remaining in Maine serving rural or underserved communities.

The new center allows �Ӱ���Ƶ to increase medical school enrollment by 21%, from 165 to 200 students per class, helping to address Maine’s critical shortage of physicians.

“We know that we have a special responsibility to Maine and its communities,” said �Ӱ���Ƶ College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean Jane Carreiro, D.O. ’88. “More Maine doctors are educated at �Ӱ���Ƶ than anywhere else, and, with this new facility, we will now be graduating 35 additional doctors every year. That means 200 doctors entering the medical workforce every year at a time when Maine and the nation desperately need more physicians.”

Hundreds gathered on the quad of the new facility, affectionally nicknamed “The Bibby,” for remarks and to celebrate the building’s grand opening.

Designed to reflect best practices in medical education, the building features flexible classrooms, team-based learning spaces,