WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Lyles-Porter Hall, the new home of Indiana University School of Medicine-Lafayette on the campus of Purdue University, will be dedicated Sept. 26. Ceremonies begin at 4:30 p.m. in the hall, which will provide collaborative training with four of Purdue University’s health science schools.
Lyles-Porter Hall will provide educational and clinical space for the nation’s second-largest medical school, the Indiana University School of Medicine, to expand its regional presence in Greater Lafayette for medical students years one through four. It also will house programs for Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences, including one of the nation’s top speech, language and hearing sciences research programs.
The 60,000-assignable-square-foot facility, at the northwest corner of Harrison and University streets, is named in honor of Marybeth Lyles-Porter Seay of Visalia, Calif., who donated $10 million for the project. Funding from state-authorized bond proceeds and other private gifts totaling $6 million were also used to finance the facility.
“This is a critical time for medical education,” said Jay L. Hess, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for university clinical affairs, dean of the School of Medicine and Walter J. Daly Professor at Indiana University. ”We face an immediate need for more primary-care physicians and the treatment opportunities afforded by the rapid advances in the science of medicine. This facility gives us the space needed to prepare more physicians for the future and to expand our students’ education and training through interactions and interdisciplinary case studies with other health care professionals.
“I would like to thank Marybeth Lyles-Porter Seay and her family for their leadership gift and all those who have helped provide the space and other resources to truly make a difference in the health of all Hoosiers,” Dr. Hess said.
The IU School of Medicine-Lafayette and Purdue’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences are the educational anchors in the building.
The IU School of Medicine-Lafayette has had a Purdue campus presence since 1968, when three medical students entered a pilot program to expand the school at a regional campus site. In 1971, when the legislature approved the Indiana Plan, enrollment at all IU School of Medicine campuses was 273 students. Today, first-year enrollment at all campuses stands at 352 students.
Lyles-Porter Hall houses the IU Health Arnett Simulation Suite, where medical students practice clinical history and physical examination skills by working with actors trained as standardized patients in modern clinical exam rooms. Students acquire procedural and emergency decision-making skills in a simulated hospital room with a realistic computerized manikin. Recently, the IU School of Medicine-Lafayette regional site added third- and fourth-year students who do clinical rotations with area physicians at the Greater Lafayette’s Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health, IU Health Arnett and River Bend.
Also contained within Lyles-Porter Hall are health education areas for Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences. They include the Ismail Center, a fitness center operated by the Department of Health and Kinesiology, featuring equipment and trainers for cardiovascular and strength training; the Nursing Center for Family Health, which provides clinical experience for nursing students who work with faculty to provide free health promotion screenings for Purdue employees, their spouses, graduate students and university retirees; and the Nutritional Training and Research Center, which provides clinical experience for nutrition science students and space for research studies coordinated by faculty.
“Thank you to Marybeth Lyles-Porter Seay for honoring her family legacy as well as supporting a facility that serves thousands of Indiana residents and is the home to breakthrough discoveries such as new technologies to help Parkinson’s patients communicate,” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said. “When Indiana residents walk through the doors of Lyles-Porter Hall, they truly will experience quality care and engage with students who also are working with and learning from some of the top researchers and clinicians in these fields.”
“A substantive exciting component of this new space is the synergy that can be realized with our new building partners in the College of Health and Human Sciences,” said Gordon L. Coppoc, DVM, Ph.D., associate dean of the IU School of Medicine and director of the IU School of Medicine-Lafayette. “Our simulation suite combined with the adjacent School of Nursing exam rooms provides great new tools for collaborative community outreach programs. A collaborative, synergistic environment is the new face of medicine, and this building is an example of that spirit.”