A £4.5M centre to improve healthcare teaching and learning throughout the region is being launched today.

It has its headquarters in Newcastle, but it aims to bring about improvements in medical care across the North-East, meeting the changing needs of today's NHS and growing expectations from patients.

The centre's launch is being marked by the visit of US healthcare expert and Harvard University academic, Dr John Halamka. He will give a keynote lecture at an event at Newcastle University tonight.

The Centre for Excellence in Healthcare Professional Education - to be known as CETL4HealthNE - is a consortium involving the Universities of Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside and healthcare partners, with Newcastle University as the lead partner.

It is the result of £4.5m from the UK's Higher Education Funding Council for England.

There will be bases throughout the region, benefiting students training for a range of healthcare professions, such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, therapies and pharmacy.

Professor Geoff Hammond, director of CETL4HealthNE, said: "The centre marks a new phase in the ongoing partnership of the region's universities and health services to train tomorrow's health professionals."