Baycare has signed a contract with Northwestern Medicine.
Northwestern is a nationally renowned academic health system through its partnership with Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. The Baycare deal will provide more access to advanced healthcare, expand clinical research and improve training and education for current and future physicians in the Tampa Bay area, officials said.
“This is not the beginning, it’s the next step in our journey that we’ve been focusing on for years,” Baycare president and CEO Stephanie Connors said in a news release. “Western Florida deserves access to academic medicine and accelerates its trajectory as an academic health system by entering into strategic cooperation with Northwest Medicine.”
The Academic Health System is designed to innovate and produce cutting-edge treatments by integrating clinical care with research and education. Locally, Tampa General Hospital has billed itself as the only academic healthcare system in the region through a 50-year partnership with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.
Baycare partners with the University of South Florida and Florida State University for sponsorship of family and sports medicine residency programs. Collaboration with Northwestern will lead to new education and training opportunities, making Baycare a more attractive option for doctors, residents and students, officials said.
![West Tampa's new 36-acre office, purchased by Baycare earlier this year, houses academic and research work.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 620 407"/%3E "West Tampa's new 36-acre office, purchased by Baycare earlier this year, houses academic and research work.")
Headquartered in Chicago, Northwestern operates 11 hospitals and more than 200 diagnostic and patient centers. Its flagship facility, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, has been named Honor Roll, the highest hospital by US News and World Report for the 13th consecutive year.
The Feinberg School of Medicine received a $742 million research funding and award in 2024, with 15 categories among the top 20 National Health Award recipients.
“We focus on working with like-minded organizations that are driven to provide patients with access to world-class, compassionate care. “Working with Baycare offers the opportunity to train and educate the next generation of health professionals and transform clinical products for patients in western Florida.”
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Baycare, which operates 16 hospitals and more than 100 clinics in the area, will house academic and research work in a 36-acre office park that it purchased for $145 million earlier this year.
The site, adjacent to St. Joseph’s, St. Joseph’s Children’s and St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in West Tampa, is named the BayCare Academic Health and Research Corridor.
