Media Releases

Leading edge inter-professional learning facility will help improve patient care

(Halifax, NS) - The Honourable Stephen McNeil, Premier of Nova Scotia, and Dalhousie President Richard Florizone, joined members of the Dalhousie community to celebrate the opening of the Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB). The only purpose-build facility of its kind in Atlantic Canada, the CHEB is designed to facilitate the transformation of health education for students at Dalhousie and foster a cultural shift in health care toward greater interprofessional collaborative care.

“The Nova Scotia government is pleased to provide funding for the Collaborative Health Education Building at Dalhousie,” said Premier McNeil. “With the opening of the CHEB, Atlantic Canada’s future health professionals will be learning together, under one roof, for the first time. That kind of collaboration is not only better for students, it’s better for patients.”

The $38.5 million facility includes a flexible, 200-seat classroom; a library and learning commons, which promotes academic team work, group and individual studying and access to computers and information resources; and specially designed homecare, rehabilitation and hospital settings to enable realistic, simulation-based learning. The building will be IT-intensive to allow more interactive classes and remote broadcasting. The CHEB will enable Dalhousie to significantly expand interdisciplinary learning opportunities for the 3700 students from Medicine, Dentistry and the Faculty of Health Professions’ nine schools.

“The CHEB is a facility that will transform the educational experience of Dalhousie’s health sciences students by enabling them to learn with, from and about each other, and to learn to work in interprofessional teams. The CHEB is really about creating a space to enable culture change: Dalhousie is part of the shift in healthcare to more family and patient-centered care,” said Richard Florizone, President of Dalhousie University. “We are grateful for the support of the provincial government for this major project.”

The CHEB was designed collaboratively by Dalhousie’s Faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, Health Professions and the University Libraries. In addition to the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, the Faculty of Health Professions includes nine schools: Health and Human Performance, Health Administration, Health Sciences, Human Communication Disorders, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, and Social Work, along with the Clinical Vision Science program.

The CHEB is located on the Dalhousie campus, at the corner of University Avenue and Summer Street. The five-story, 107,000 square foot learning facility is a candidate for LEED Gold Standard.

At the ceremony today, Premier McNeil and President Florizone were joined by Minister Leo Glavine, Janet Knox, President and CEO of Nova Scotia Health Authority; Tracy Kitch, President and CEO of IWK Health Centre, the Deans of Dentistry, Medicine and Health Professions, and the University Librarian.

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Media Contact

Janet Bryson
Senior Communications Advisor
Dalhousie University
902-494-1269
janet.bryson@dal.ca