Preparing students to build and lead the future of health care.
Designing and developing precision treatments for all populations.
Influencing the critical factors that affect the health of an aging population.
Creating Defenses Against Disease
Unraveling the complexities of human biology to build better defenses against disease.
New Frontiers for Better Health
Creating new opportunities to develop innovative solutions for global health care problems.
We are focusing our efforts on five vitally important areas: Next-Generation Education, Precision Health Care for All, Innovations in Healthy Aging, Creating Defenses Against Disease and New Frontiers for Better Health. These areas can be seen coming to life through a growing collection of stories under the banner of Tomorrow is here.
Through these strategic efforts, we have unprecedented opportunities to excel in education and research in more and better ways than ever before. The strengths we possess give us an incredible advantage that we can use to improve the health and well-being of individuals in the local community, across the state of Arizona and around the world.

Curriculum of Tomorrow
We are expanding our Bilingual Medical Distinction track to increase the number of students with Spanish proficiency, expanding Community Service and Rural Health Distinction tracks, and offering a new Health Care Disparities curriculum in partnership with Tucson’s Commitment to Underserved People clinics. As a result, the Arizona Health Sciences colleges are becoming a significant force in alleviating our state’s health care disparities, including access to care in rural communities and having providers that understand the cultures and speak the languages of our patients.

Health Care Workforce Expansion
To address critical health care workforce needs, this initiative is providing an expanded pipeline of providers focused on primary, preventive and prenatal health; advancing interprofessional training of nurse practitioners, allied health and field faculty educators; and creating pre-university pipeline programs through educational offerings focused on medical science.

Health Sciences Design Program
The Health Sciences Design Program is developing facilities and curricula that engage undergraduate, graduate and professional students in all majors in the design of solutions for health care challenges. By building a design school that provides an engaging and productive innovation “playground” that includes equipment and knowledgeable staff, we are developing critical skills and competencies in health sciences design thinking content and courses.

Interprofessional Education Portfolio
The University of Arizona Health Sciences is becoming the nation’s most advanced innovator in lifelong interprofessional health education and practice by harmonizing learner experiences across the five Health Sciences colleges through longitudinal, online, onsite and community-based activities. This includes revamping onsite interprofessional education, expanding community- based activities and developing new interprofessional degree offerings.

Minimize the Debt Burden
We are designing, adopting and promoting new loan financing and scholarship options to help make health education more affordable and easier to navigate, including reducing curricular barriers to degree completion that increase student debt. Endeavors within this initiative also are helping to provide new online resources for financial literacy.

Health Sciences International
We are advancing University of Arizona Health Sciences offerings into the international domains and bringing the world closer together by defining the future of health care education, research and practice. Specific components include the creation of new online, blended and microcampus program offerings as well as the expansion of international research opportunities for students. Ultimately, these activities are leading to increased enrollment in Arizona Health Sciences micro-campus, online and competency-based degree programs.

Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies
The Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies will form alliances and enhance relationships with other academic, professional and industry organizations to accelerate progress in the late-stage development and commercialization of personalized cell and gene-based therapies in cancer, autoimmune disease, infectious disease and immune monitoring.

Center for Regenerative and Restorative Medicine
The mission of the Center for Regenerative and Restorative Medicine is to catalyze research into a community that is focused on development of cell-based technologies that diagnose disease or heal injured tissue. The objectives rely on research to build living, cell-based therapies or products that enable function through biochemical and physical means that improve human health.

Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center
To lead the state in addressing the current opioid epidemic, we are developing a Comprehensive Center for Chronic Pain and Addiction that is the nucleus for treatment, research, trials, drug discovery, technology, education and legislation to predict, prevent and contain addiction crises. We are conducting new research on comprehensive behavioral therapies as addiction treatment, develop early screeners for individuals at risk and develop novel non-addictive pain medications and medications to help those who suffer from addiction.

Melanoma and Skin Cancer Database
Arizona demonstrates one of the highest incidence rates of melanoma and skin cancer in the world at significant economic impact to our health care systems. This initiative will build the only state registry and database of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer to better assess the full burden of these diseases.

Innovations in Healthy Aging
Innovations in Healthy Aging positions the University of Arizona as the go-to educational organization for healthy aging. We are increasing the University of Arizona’s capacity in discovery and education focused on aging and enhancing community collaboration to meet the opportunities and challenges of an expanding older adult population. Innovations in Healthy Aging is building a network of experts in aging-related research, industry, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, health professionals, and community members to develop solutions for families, communities and society’s changing needs.

Precision Aging Network
The University of Arizona will develop a strong scientific foundation for the essential knowledge needed to match cognitive health span with human lifespan. Specifically, this initiative will help to understand the neurological changes that occur during normal aging and the links to environmental and genetic factors that drive exceptional cognitive health span, e.g., mapping cognitive outcomes to genotypes and lifestyle, utilize big data techniques and community-based participatory research to determine optimal individual wellness plans.

Personalized Defense
Personalized Defense addresses issues related to infection, immunity and inflammation caused by microorganisms. We are working toward establishing collaboration channels between different university departments, institutes and centers by creating an Immune-Microbe Interface in Health and Disease (IMIHD) interest group. IMIHD is incentivizing faculty by granting additional resources to hire more postdocs, jump-starting collaborations, supporting microbiome infrastructure and positioning the University of Arizona Health Sciences as a revolutionary real-time point of care leader for inflammatory diseases.

Valley Fever Collaborative
This initiative will support a collaborative effort between Arizona’s three state universities that will focus on the development of precision medicine approaches, drug development and environmental risk abatement to reduce the financial cost and human burden of Valley fever.

Aegis Consortium
Based at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, the consortium will use the knowledge gained from COVID-19 to predict and prepare for future pandemics. The concept and reach of the consortium will require collaborations across UArizona, as well as partnerships with universities, foundations, nonprofits, governments and industries throughout the world.

Health Analytics Powerhouse
We are establishing a roadmap and infrastructure to reliably and securely collect key data sets and data streams from partner institutions and collaborations. This initiative is centralizing data science services, technology and staff for interdisciplinary communities of practice to use data science and analytics methods and increase their expertise in health. With more access to advanced analytics, the University of Arizona Health Sciences is poised to pursue new leading-edge programs, generate inventive pilot programs and bolster future grant submissions.

Health Sciences Collaborative
We are creating an advisory with consolidated research and translation services and develop programming and tools that will increase 4th Industrial Revolution health sciences research by creating an environment to facilitate the exchange of resources and expertise.

Health Sciences Sensor Lab
We are connecting researchers across health sciences disciplines and beyond to develop an array of technologies and digital solutions like wearable sensors for disease monitoring and other health applications.

HealthTech Connect
HealthTech Connect is a consortium for the start-up, corporate, higher education, funding and economic development communities to advance health technology in Arizona, generate new partnerships and elevate Phoenix’s reputation as an emerging center for biomedical innovation and collaboration.

One Health
One Health is an approach that recognizes the health and wellness interconnection between people, animals, plants and our shared environment. One Health integrates expertise in human, animal and environmental health to improve health outcomes, better respond to public health challenges, assure safe and healthy food and water, and protect global health security.

Telehealth Expansion
Expansion of the Arizona Telemedicine Program will further its reach into more rural and underserved areas in the state and will increase the capabilities for remote health monitoring and remote education. In addition, the creation of curriculum specific to telehealth will provide additional learning experiences for students across Health Sciences to meet the needs of underserved communities and patients.