SBU School of Medicine, Winthrop Hospital Announce Partnership

Third- and fourth-year medical students in Stony Brook's School of Medicine will have another option for completing their clinical rotations, after the school announced a partnership with Winthrop University Hospital this week.

Dr. Latha Chandran, vice dean for undergraduate medical education at Stony Brook, said in a statement that the partnership – which establishes a "clinical campus" for SBU students at Winthrop – will expand the opportunities available to those students, especially those who live in Nassau County or New York City.

"The number of Stony Brook medical students involved in clerkships over the next few years will increase because Stony Brook School of Medicine class sizes are increasing," Chandran said in a statement.

Winthrop has for the last 30 years been a teaching affiliate of the SBU School of Medicine, but the clinical campus allows students to complete their entire third- and fourth-year requirements at Winthrop.

"There are many rigorous standards that must be met in order to qualify for designation as a clinical campus," said Dr. John F. Aloia, Winthrop's chief academic officer. "This initiative will help to increase the availability of opportunities for medical education to help address a growing shortage of physicians on Long Island and nationwide."

To accommodate those needs, Winthrop also announced it will build a $65 million, 95,000-square-foot medical research and education center beginning in March of 2012.

In addition to Winthrop, Stony Brook medical students also complete clerkships at the VA Medical Center in Northport, Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, and Flushing Hospital in Queens.