New School in the Pacific Northwest

[Herpeto]

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I am wondering where an individual would begin if they were attempting to start a new DO school. West of the Mississippi there is a huge lack of medical programs both MD and DO. The largest underserved and educated area is the Pacific Northwest. Most states either have one medical school such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington or no schools like Idaho, Alaska and Montana. When we compare this with the East coast and states like New York with 12 schools and Illinois with 7 schools there is a huge discrepancy. Although the East coast is definitely more populated, there population to student/doctor ratio is much greater than that of the West. Furthermore, the lack of schools is only hindering the number of people that can be educated as physicians due to limited out-of-state spots for those individuals.

I believe that the best opportunity for beginning a new school would be to develop a state or bi-state supported school as opposed to a private school. Do I need to begin lobbying for new legislation, speaking with state representatives, talking with existing universities to evaluate the present facilities and what needs to be done to bring a medical program to the school? Would it be easier to gain funding for a DO or MD school? OR could it be join venture where they share the same classes and the DO's just take the additional OMM classes. What typoe of time frame should be anticipated? The other alternative would be to speak with existing schools about developing additional campuses such as LECOM did. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Herp

 

[GoForIt]

I believe that the best opportunity for beginning a new school would be to develop a state or bi-state supported school as opposed to a private school.

I totally agree with you. That's a very wonderful idea. There's truly a need for a new DO school in PNW.

I heard that Rick Neuisel was recently fired, and he is an excellent recruiter. I am sure that Rick would be able to sell the idea of a DO school to your state registrator. Before you know it, he can recruit enough support to start such a DO school in your state. Even I am not a husky fan, I would root for Rick if he is willing to pursue it. Go Ducks!

 

[hossofadoc]

I've heard rumors of starting a new DO school in the area for years. The latest I've heard is that they are considering opening a school in Eastern Washington and BYU. I think both would be great oppurtunities for DO's and would provide medical students to areas in dire need.

 

[MOZ D.O.]

last i heard there is to be new d.o. school in provo, utah opening in 2005. i haven't heard much about it but it should provide some relief to the healthcare drought. i think montana would be a great place to start a d.o. school considering it's a big state without any med school. a state sponsored school would probably be the best way to go considering private funding is hard to come by.

MOZ D.O.

 

[GoForIt]

glorytaker, I did my undergrad at U Wisconsin, and grad work at UO. Hope you hit the lottery and that you be a more generous donor than Uncle Phil. HaHaHa!!!

 

[ameier14]

Despite the fact that BYU is probably the top producer of qualified pre-dents and is one of the top undergrad institutions to place pre-meds into medical school in the entire country (something like a 70% placement into med school), I strongly doubt that there will ever be an osteopathic medical school alligned with the institution. Its true that both sides would benefit from such an arrangement- BYU would benefit by filling the needs of many of it's students who wish to practice medicine and the AOA would benefit from having a medical school aligned with a prestigous university. However, you have to remember that this private university is owned and operated by a church. The LDS Church is very fiscally sound, not one to spend a lot of money on something as expensive as a medical school.

 

[s42brown]

I think that the next generation of osteopathic medical schools need to strive to have strong affilitations with state or private big name schools. VCOM is in a great position being affiliated with virginia tech, this will be a very popular school within the next five years