The Board of Trustees on Thursday gave approval for University President Michael Rao to proceed with a medical school.

Central Michigan University is the 65th largest public university in the nation by enrollment, but one of the few without a medical school.

The Undergraduate Medical Education Program would change that.

In addition, the Board approved a $1.5 million budget to design additions to the Health Professions Building, where the program will be housed.

Doctor shortage

Rao addressed the issue of physician shortage in northern Michigan.

“This region will suffer disproportionately when that physician shortage hits, and it is definitely going to hit,” he said.

There is a population of two million people sparsely distributed around mid and northern-Michigan, where most regions this size in the United States would have a medical school, Rao said.

Jeff Caponigro, Board of Trustees chairman, said this is a great public service to Michigan.

“When we look at the shortage of 6,000 physicians by the year of 2020, somebody has to step up and help fulfill that need,” Caponigro said. “From this moment on we will be seen in a different light nationally.”

Claudia Douglass, proposed curriculum coordinator for the medical program, said the university has just starting to plan the details.

A $15 million budget will be used to renovate the Health Professions Building while making building additions.

Douglass said the additions with have labs, a large lecture hall, examination rooms and tutorial rooms.

“This could be the bridge between a prospective medical school and the existing and successful programs in the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions,” Rao said.

Funding for medical school will be a tuition-based revenue structure with no intent to absorb ongoing or existing operating dollars, Rao said.

“Some money that has to be invested that is one time, the school will have to pay back. But what that amount will be is subject to modeling right now,” he said.

Accreditation

Top priority is to have academic affiliations with hospitals. Potential affiliation partners are MidMichigan Health, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Central Michigan Community Hospital, Covenant HealthCare, St. Mary’s of Michigan and Ascension Health and Synergy Medical Education Alliance.

Official accreditation of the university’s medical education program would come with the proposed graduation of the first class in 2015, Rao said.

The accreditation is through the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which has a joint effort with the America Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges. Together they created standards that constitute medical education programs that lead to physicians degrees.

Rao said the university can prepare for an Liaison Committee Medical Education preliminary accreditation visit.

“It is not just our decision – it’s their decision, so once they tell you they approve you in a preliminary way for an accreditation, so you can begin to recruit your charter class, that to me is when this all becomes very real,” Rao said.

Douglass said in the first two years the school will hire faculty and staff, put together a curriculum planning committee, secure hospital affiliation, plan additions to the HP Building and plan the procedure for admission into the program.

“We’re looking for students who are going into medical practice as a physician,” Douglass said.

The Program

There will be 100 students enrolled yearly into the program.

The first two years of the curriculum, the students will take basic sciences at CMU coupled with clinical examples. Students will also be able to work with patients in the community.

“We can’t model right now until you know faculty or … leadership what the curriculum is going to look like,” Rao said. “We’re looking to faculty to be leaders for problem-based learning. Here, students will get together and study a case learning anatomy, emergency, internal medicine, physiology.”

Caponigro said the Undergraduate Medical Education Program will become a part of CMU.

“There shouldn’t be any doubt about it – we’re moving ahead with it. There will be a medical school here; we will get accredited. I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t. We will have affiliation with someone. It will happen,” he said. “We’ve done our homework and we know what we’re getting into. We’re ready to take on the challenge and we’re perfectly suited for it.”

Rao said he finds the diverse area of hospitals in the mid-Michigan area a plus for the program.

“You got an opportunity now to not just have this be in any way one city’s university, but a region’s university and I think we have to keep moving in that direction,” he said.

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E-mail the author: Lynn Fischer