Arizona State University and HonorHealth, a locally owned nonprofit health system, announced today that they have finalized an agreement for HonorHealth to serve as the primary clinical affiliate for ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering, a central component of ASU Health.
Driven by a mutual desire to advance health care through technology and humanity, this agreement will help train future leaders in medicine and medical engineering and improve health outcomes through collaborative and community-focused care.
Why this is important
A crucial part of medical education is hands-on learning within a hospital, as medical students spend several years rotating through various departments under the supervision of a physician or other faculty.
This affiliation with HonorHealth ensures that ASU students will have access to high-quality hospital facilities.
It’s an important milestone, one step of many as ASU works through the accreditation process. The inaugural class of the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering is expected in the 2026–27 school year.
The move marks a significant step forward in the development of ASU Health and represents a collaborative effort to create the clinical education programs needed for ASU’s new School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. The agreement will help develop a unique, nationally recognized medical education program to attract and retain outstanding students, residents and faculty.
“We are pleased to join with HonorHealth in this important and fundamental step,” ASU President Michael Crow said. “HonorHealth is equipped to be an important component and contributor to ASU Health in creating a unique medical school that is transformative in delivering better health outcomes for the people of Arizona, and beyond.”
The clinical affiliation between ASU and HonorHealth will further develop graduate medical education (GME) programs and will bring to the medical school the educational benefits of GME programs for undergraduate medical education. In addition, it ensures the availability of HonorHealth facilities for clinical and research experiences for ASU students.
“HonorHealth is thrilled to collaborate with ASU, America’s most innovative university, in a partnership that is breaking new ground in professional education and clinical experience for tomorrow’s medical professionals,” HonorHealth Chief Executive Officer Todd LaPorte said. “As a market-leading, community-focused health system with nearly 100 years of expertise in Arizona, we believe we are the right partner for this new kind of medical school.”
Medical education involves hands-on experience and hospital-based learning, frequently in a university hospital. Medical students spend several years rotating through various units within a hospital to gain real-life clinical experience, always under the guidance of a physician or other faculty. In the ASU Health model, the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering’s affiliation with HonorHealth ensures that students have access to high-quality local hospital facilities to advance their education and careers.
HonorHealth will be the health system that houses the majority of the training experiences for the medical school’s undergraduate students with rotations in hospitals throughout Phoenix, Scottsdale and surrounding communities. A process will be developed for ASU faculty appointments for HonorHealth clinicians and other health professionals who participate in the leadership or educational activities of the new medical school.
The agreement between ASU and HonorHealth also will cover other academic, research and innovation programs within ASU Health. One of the goals is to strengthen the HonorHealth Research Institute and its translational and clinical research programs through active collaboration with ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise and research connected to ASU Health. Correspondingly, the goal includes expanding research opportunities for ASU Health.
“HonorHealth is on the leading edge of translating clinical research into life-changing, patient-centered treatments, and our partnership with ASU will assist us in recruiting the best and brightest clinicians who are dedicated to this shared vision,” LaPorte said.
With regard to physical infrastructure, HonorHealth will make its inpatient hospitals and outpatient/ambulatory facilities available to provide robust clinical experiences for medical students. The partnership also provides that all HonorHealth hospitals where medical student rotations occur will be designated as the school’s official teaching hospitals.
While this agreement is an important step in launching the new medical school, leaders emphasized that this is only the beginning.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, and with HonorHealth’s help, we can develop new ways of teaching and learning, and serving Arizona,” Crow said. “The measurement of our success in the future will be, is our community healthier? It’s our responsibility to make it happen.”
LaPorte said, “We are excited to work with ASU, to learn from each other, to provide the expertise that we bring from years of experience, and to create a unique academic medical enterprise that will benefit the local communities we serve and the entire state of Arizona for many years to come.”
ASU will continue its work to obtain accreditation for the medical school education program through the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the accrediting body for medical education programs in the United States. Subject to LCME action and any required regulatory approvals, ASU’s School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering expects to admit its first class of approximately 35 students in the 2026–27 academic year.
ASU’s ongoing relationships with other affiliates in research, training and other areas remain unchanged by this announcement. The university’s work with Phoenix Children’s, Barrow Neurological Institute, Mayo Clinic, VA Phoenix Health Care and other health care institutions will continue.