HOUSTON: An Indian-American doctor couple has donated a whopping USD 200 million to create a regional campus for a private university to potentially transform healthcare in the US that will also train doctors from India.
Kiran Patel, born to Indian parents in Zambia and his paediatrician wife Pallavi Patel's gift to the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) located near Miami will allow it to open a new campus in Tampa.
Kiran is a former cardiologist who currently runs the Tampa-based managed health care company Freedom Health.
The donation from the Patel Family Foundation includes a USD 50 million gift and an additional USD 150 million real estate and facility investment in a 325,000 square-foot medical education complex that will be part of NSU's new campus.
Their transformational commitment will advance health care in Florida and internationally, with a particular focus on multicultural and underserved communities. The goal is to put patients first and integrate medical and health care expertise, the university said in a statement.
The campus will house a new site for NSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine, as well as its existing programmes in the Tampa area. The school is the largest provider of medical graduates in the state of Florida, it said.
"The university will produce 250 doctors annually in the short run and the roughly 400 physicians in few years," Kiran said.
He said medical doctors from India will be brought to the US for a year-long residency in the country. "It will be like training the trainers," he said.
"This partnership will benefit thousands of patients, students and doctors," Pallavi said.
"Over the next 20 years, NSU will train thousands of new doctors and other health care professionals who will directly touch millions of lives, making a real difference," she added.
"This gift and additional investment will enrich NSU's ability to educate highly-qualified physicians and healthcare professionals who understand how the medical disciplines can and must work together," said NSU President George Hanbury.
"This USD 200-million-commitment will make NSU the premiere leader in healthcare education on both the east and west coasts of Florida," said Hanbury.
The gift is one of the seven-largest to any Florida university in history and largest to the university. The gift is Nova's largest ever and one of the largest to a higher education institution in years.