WORCESTER, Mass. - Sen. Ed Markey made a stop on the campus of UMass Chan Medical School Tuesday morning, where he toured the recently opened Veterans Administration Building.

The 48,000 square foot community-based outpatient clinic is equipped to serve more than 16,000 enrolled veterans in Worcester County.

While on the tour, UMass Chan Chancellor Michael Collins shared with Markey why it's important for the school to have such a facility.

“In our training we all had the opportunity to learn in VA facilities and we felt it was big lacking that the medical school didn’t have such a facility, which is why we partnered with your office, and Jim [McGovern]’s office, and the VA folks so that we could put this together,” Collins said. “Now I think what’s happening is that people have seen how well a partnership could work and now the idea that this could be expanded on in other places."

Markey also visited with researchers studying ALS and Alzheimer’s disease at the school.