SAN DIEGO - Construction began Friday at UC San Diego's School of Medicine on a 99,000-square-foot facility that will be used to teach future physicians high-tech ways of delivering health care, from telemedicine to robotic surgeries.
The UCSD Medical Education and Telemedicine Center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2011.
Once completed, the building will be a center for new initiatives in telemedicine, which allows medical care and expertise to be provided in remote areas and communities through the use of telecommunications, according to UCSD. It will also be used to teach doctors about the latest in medical and surgical advances, such as surgical robotics.
About half of the building's $65 million cost will be paid for through Proposition 1D, a bond measure approved by California voters in 2006 to expand and enhance medical education programs.
