By Steve DeVane Staff writer

BUIES CREEK – Campbell University’s medical school has more than 700 applications for its inaugural class of 150 students, school officials say.

Another 800 students have expressed interest in attending the School of Osteopathic Medicine, which will be the first of its kind in North Carolina when it opens in August 2013.

Campbell officials announced Wednesday that the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the Golden LEAF Foundation each gave the school $2 million gifts.

Leaders of the groups said the private university’s medical school will provide badly needed primary care doctors for rural communities in North Carolina. The school will eventually have 600 students who will train at the school in Harnett County for the first two years and learn in community hospitals during the third and fourth years.

Campbell’s will be the first medical school to open in the state in 35 years. Osteopathic doctors use traditional medical techniques, such as prescription drugs and surgery, but also focus on wellness and disease prevention.

An economist estimated that the medical school will create more than 1,150 jobs and have an estimated economic impact of nearly $300 million in its first 10 years.

The medical school will be in a $60 million, 96,500-square-foot facility that also will be home to Campbell’s physician assistant program. The two buildings on U.S. 421 between Lillington and Erwin are about a quarter mile from Campbell’s main campus in Buies Creek.

The buildings, which will be connected by a hallway, are taking shape, with workers spraying insulation and laying bricks on the outer walls Wednesday. Inside, metal studs separate where classrooms, offices, the library, study rooms, labs and a cafe will be located.

Dr. John Kauffman, the school’s founding dean, said the gifts from the trust and the foundation will allow the school to equip its simulation lab with state-of-the-art high-fidelity robotics.

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