Construction to begin on new Apple Campus Store

Construction is scheduled to begin after December finals on MUSC’s new Apple Campus Store. The store will offer Apple and Dell products to students and employees at educational discounts and will serve as the ordering point for university and hospital departmental sales.

Located on the first floor of the Colbert Library, the store will feature a space similar to Apple’s "Genius Bar," where staff from the Office of the Chief Information Officer will provide technical support for iOS-based health care apps.

“The broader goal of this space will connect with our focus on innovation, which is part of the Imagine MUSC 2020 strategic plan,” said OCIO’s Chief Operating Officer Casey Baker. “We plan to partner with stakeholders across campus to serve as a testbed for new and unique platforms. We want the tech store to be a hub for innovation. Ultimately, we’d like to offer tech kits that include apps and smart devices tailored to specific health care needs, almost like technological prescriptions.”

Apple partners with universities across the country to sell its products at educational discounts, offering campus development funds if those institutions meet specific criteria such as employing students, offering technical support and meeting certain sales requirements. MUSC will be Apple’s first partnership with a dedicated university medical center, which Baker said has both partners excited.

“MUSC has had tech stores in the past,” she said. “But never with a strategic partner like Apple. Apple is unique in offering this type of partnership, and they aren’t restrictive of what else we sell in the store. All non-Apple products we sell in the store will be available to the general public. The only restriction from Apple is that we only sell their products to students, faculty and staff of MUSC because of the educational discount they offer.”

PHOTO SNIPPET HERE

A year ago, MUSC President David Cole, M.D., FACS, MUSC Health CEO Patrick Cawley, M.D., Chief Information Officer Michael Caputo and Enterprise IT Architecture Director Mark Daniels made a trip to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, to exchange ideas about the role of technology in the future of health care. It was out of that exchange that the idea for the campus store’s focus on health innovation was born, Baker said.

“This partnership with Apple exemplifies our strategy around innovation and will foster similar corporate ventures focusing on novel health care solutions,” Caputo explained. “We imagine this store will bring people together to share ideas and find the right technology to transform their vision into value for our community.”

The store will be staffed by two full-time employees, and OCIO plans to hire between eight and 10 students as needed.  Advisory committees associated with the Student Government Association and other stakeholders have been set up to ensure the store will meet the needs of the communities it is intended to serve.

“This will be a place where people new to technology can come to learn about opportunities they may not have known about before,” Baker said. “The store will be a catalyst for innovation, conversations and networking across the campus.”

The store opening is tentatively scheduled for April 1. OCIO is currently holding a naming contest, and the winner will receive a new iPad pro. Enter your name here for a chance to win.