Health sciences students should learn as they will practice.

For five years, this simple idea drove the creation of the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic.

In the spring of 2019, faculty, staff and students finally saw the concept become a reality.

With the opening of the 477,000-square-foot Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion and 132,000-square-foot Dental Clinic, the campus is now home to students, faculty and staff of the university’s nursing, dental, and medical schools, including the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

And their space is explicitly designed to encourage interaction—in classes, labs, and even at meals. The physical and academic structures aim to give students a head start on their future careers, where team-based health care is increasingly common—in large measure because it leads to improved patient outcomes.

The new campus “makes the traditional curricular things, like having shared classes, much easier,” said Tyler Reimschisel, Case Western Reserve’s founding associate provost for interprofessional education, research and collaborative practice. Pointing to the expansive Cosgrove Courtyard at the center of the Samson Pavilion, he added: “And that, right there, helps for collaboration. You get to know people you probably wouldn’t have met otherwise—and you have an ideal space to meet, work on projects or even design interprofessional curriculum together.”