COLTON -- A new private nonprofit medical school is planned that would give preference to area Hispanic students that would likely practice in the Inland Empire, officials said Monday.

The founding group for the California University of Science and Medicine (Cal-Med), to be based in Colton, is led by Dr. Dev GnanaDev, a longtime surgeon and former California Medical Association president.

GnanaDev is chief of surgery at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and was until recently its medical director.

As head of the CMA, GnanaDev made frequent trips to Washington during the formative period of the Affordable Care Act.

Although the Inland Empire has three medical schools, the region faced a shortage of 3,000 physicians before national healthcare reform became fully implemented this year.

Dr. G. Richard Olds, dean of the School of Medicine at UC Riverside, said the two-county region's doctor shortage will grow to 5,000 in 2021.

The medical school is being financed primarily though a $40 million donation from Prime Healthcare Foundation, which is founded by Dr. Prem Reddy, a cardiologist who is founder, chairman and president of Prime Healthcare Services, which operates 25 hospitals in six states.

In an interview, Reddy said he would make more funding available if it is needed for the launch.

The first class is expected to be 50 students in the fall of 2016, which would grow to 150 in a few years.

GnanaDev said that Cal Med would contain a research element and additional allied healthcare components such as schools for nursing, physician assistants and physical therapy.

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New medical school planned in California