Tuesday, October 2, 2012 11:06 PM EDT

By Scott Whipple Staff Writer

When we came across 300 John Downey Drive [a former warehouse] we knew we had found the right home, she said.

Brown and other dignitaries helped celebrate Connecticut Childrens Medical Center School Tuesday on John Downey Drive during a special ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Walking through the doors of the new CCMC School, students, staff, parents and visitors have been awed by our expansive and modern state-ofthe-art facility, said Patricia Gerrity, CCMC School principal. Gerrity noted the newest technology in the classrooms, gymnasium and numerous resources for academic enhancement, emotional and behavioral growth.

Annalisa Russell-Smith | Staff Third grader Brianna Williams, left, speaking at the ribbon cutting for her new school, Connecticut Children's Medical Center School on John Downey Drive in New Britain Tuesday morning. At right is the school's principal, Patricia Gerrity.

That there were no stairs to tire you out, she said.

It was the cafeteria that impressed 10th-grader Hilson Mejias.

It was like awesome, he said. And the [school] colors are like a rainbow leading to a pot of gold.

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Special ed students love the new Connecticut Children's Medical Center School

HAMDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Quinnipiac University's new medical school has received it's accreditation, and will be ready for the next crop of students looking to become doctors.

The University will be recruiting its first class for the fall of 2013 after earning two important endorsements from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the State Board of Education.

Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine is named in honor of the noted surgeon and prolific medical illustrator.

"Adding a medical school to Quinnipiac's existing schools of law, health sciences, nursing, communications, education, business and engineering and College of Arts and Sciences will continue Quinnipiac's transformation into a major national university," Quinnipiac President John. L Lahey said in a statement. "When the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine enrolls its first medical students in the Fall of 2013, Quinnipiac will join fewer than 100 universities in America that have both law and medical schools."

The medical school will become the third in Connecticut, making St. Vincent's Medical Center of Bridgeport their primary clinical partner. This collaboration will give the residents in the state's largest city more access to health care. The medical school is also affiliated with MidState Medical Center in Meriden and Middlesex Hospital in Middletown.

"Applicants to our school can be assured that they will receive a high quality medical education that will prepare them for the contemporary practice of medicine," said Dr. Bruce Koeppen, the founding dean of the medical school.

The first class at the medical school will have 60 students and is expected to grow to 125 students per class by 2017.

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QU's new medical school approved

Freshmen aspiring to be doctors may now have to plan their class schedules a little differently.

The Medical College Admission Test will undergo its fifth revision since it was first administered in 1928 then called the Scholastic Aptitude Test for Medical Students.

In spring 2015, when the new changes will take effect, medical school hopefuls will sit for six and a half hours to take MCAT2015 almost two hours longer than the current version. Each year, more than 85,000 students take the exam.

The test will still consist of four sections, but they have been redivided. It will now consist of Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems, Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems, Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations of Behavior and Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills.

The Writing Section will also be discontinued.

The current version of the test has been in use since 1991, and the new version is likely to be in place until 2030, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The AAMC took into account all medical schools individual comments about the new MCAT, Perelman School of Medicine Senior Vice Dean for Education and professor Gail Morrison said. The new test will assume matriculating students have prior knowledge of biochemistry and statistics.

Familiarity with some concepts from social sciences will also be expected, Senior Associate Director of Career Services Peter Stokes said.

Clearly there is more to being a physician than being a good scientist, Stokes said. The AAMC has been looking at a variety of ways of finding applicants who are likely to bring other valuable skills, knowledge and experience to the profession.

Students who have taken psychology, cognitive neuroscience, statistics and epidemiology courses will now have use of this knowledge in medical school, Morrison said. The AAMC recognizes that these liberal arts courses will be helpful for students.

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MCAT revisions bring change for medical school hopefuls

A national accrediting agency has approved UC Riversides plan to open a full medical school and to start enrolling future doctors next summer. It would be the sixth medical school in the University of California system and the first to open since the late 1960s.

Last year, the same panel rejected the proposal because it looked too risky after the state refused to fund the school. But UC Riverside officials have since secured enough other public and private financing for a program that they say will help ease a doctor shortage in the Inland Empire and improve public healthcare there.

Because we had tried and failed before, it is all the sweeter to have succeeded a year later, said UC Riverside medical school Dean G. Richard Olds, clearly pleased with the news.

The preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education allows UC Riverside to start recruiting students with the goal of enrolling 50 a year beginning next August, officials said. The agencys action was reported to be the first time in three decades that an American medical school was approved after previously having been denied.

Badly stung by last years rejection, Olds and other UC Riverside leaders campaigned for and won about $100 million in donations and pledges to support the school for 10 years. The donors included the UC system itself, Riverside County, the quasi-governmental Desert Healthcare District and affiliated hospitals.

ALSO:

TV shows creepy clown billboards disturb Childrens Hospital

L.A. council votes to repeal ban on medical marijuana dispensaries

--Larry Gordon

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UC Riverside gets preliminary OK to open med school

Medical charter school opens doors to first students

While jobs are in short supply in many industries, that's not the case in the medical field.

A new charter school in Lehigh County is now trying to address that need. The Medical Academy Charter School in Catasauqua is the first of its kind in the Lehigh Valley. It's goal is to better steer kids into the field of health care.

Between the algebra and history of the Jamestown settlement is an art class teaching students how drawing can turn to healing for the sick.

"This is an example of a Zen tangle art therapy method that psychotherapists may use to draw out emotions in patients," said teacher Carol Traynor.

The new school is using the promise of a career in health care to draw students in.

"This is where the jobs are going to be now and in the near future. It's ever growing," said Joanna Hughes, CEO and principal of the school, which opened in September to 9th and 10th graders.

The school, which will expand to 11th and 12th graders, infuses health care sciences into the general curriculum, Hughes said.

"We will provide the children with opportunities so that can be an x-ray tech or a phlebotomist or someone who works in the office doing billing," Hughes said.

Taylor Fullin, who wants to be anesthesiologist, transferred from Northampton Area High School.

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Medical charter school opens doors to first students

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA.com) There are only a handful of medical schools in California, and UC Riverside has just been added to the roster.

Officials have given preliminary approval to UCR medical schools proposed courses, which means the university can soon begin accepting applications, a campus spokesperson announced Tuesday.

This is momentous for Inland Southern California and for UC Riverside, UCR Chancellor Timothy P. White said.

This medical school is critically needed to address our regions physician shortage and stimulate the local economy, said White, who credited the Riverside communitys support in reaching this point.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education withheld accreditation approval in 2011 because Californias budget crisis would prohibit UCRs medical school from receiving sufficient funds.

The university has since secured millions in private donations, including $20 million from Riverside County, allowing plans for the medical school to move forward an endeavor that began in 2006.

Classes will be held in the new School of Medicine Research Building and the renovated School of Medicine Education Building, campus officials said.

Prospective students can begin submitting applications to the four-year program later this month when the medical school is added to the American Medical College Application Service.

This will be the sixth medical school added to the UC system, which hasnt inaugurated a new campus M.D. program since the 1960s.

(2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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Commission Approve Opening Of UC Riverside’s Medical School

News Release

Bangs joins the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School.

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Release Date: September 27, 2012

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- James (Jay) D. Bangs, PhD, professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and an expert in the cell biology of the agent that causes African sleeping sickness, has been appointed the Grant T. Fisher Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The announcement brings to nine the number of new chairs and chair-level appointees recruited by Michael E. Cain, MD, UB vice president for health sciences and dean of the UB medical school, in the past four years. These national hires, Cain says, are a critical piece of his strategic vision for the medical school's future.

According to Cain, Bangs rapidly emerged as the top candidate following a comprehensive national search, possessing all the skills needed to advance the UB department and expand its basic research programs in service of UB's 2020 strategic goals. Under Bangs, Cain says, the department will enhance the excellence of its research enterprise, undergraduate and graduate student education and mentored research training programs.

Bangs succeeds J. Iain Hay, who has served as chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology for 20 years.

A faculty member and trainer for the microbiological doctoral training program at UW, and a member of its Center for Research and Training in Parasitic Diseases, Bangs will join UB in January 2013.

He conducts research on African trypanosomes, one-celled parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly, which cause African sleeping sickness in humans, a fatal disease that is reemerging throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

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UB Medical School Names New Chair of Microbiology and Immunology

A national accrediting agency has approved UC Riverside's long-embattled plan to open a full medical school and to start enrolling future doctors next summer, officials announced Tuesday. It would be the sixth medical school in the University of California system and the first to open since the late 1960s.

Last year, the same panel rejected the proposal because it looked too risky after the state refused to fund the school. But UC Riverside officials have since secured enough other public and private financing for a program that they say will help ease a doctor shortage in the Inland Empire and improve public healthcare there.

"Because we had tried and failed before, it is all the sweeter to have succeeded a year later," an elated UC Riverside medical school Dean G. Richard Olds said in a telephone interview.

The preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education allows UC Riverside to start recruiting students with the goal of enrolling 50 a year beginning next August, officials said. The agency's action was reported to be the first time in three decades that an American medical school was approved after previously having been denied.

Badly stung by last year's rejection, Olds and other UC Riverside leaders campaigned for and won about $100 million in donations and pledges to support a scaled-down school for 10 years. The donors included the UC system, Riverside County, the quasi-governmental Desert Healthcare District and affiliated hospitals.

However, Olds said the medical school will still need about $15 million a year in state general revenue funds if it is to expand and win full accreditation over the next six years.

Observers say that the state may find it hard to keep denying funding and to threaten the school's permanent future once the doors are open to students. Critics, however, contend that a new medical school is the kind of unnecessary expansionism that UC and the state can no longer afford while basic education programs have suffered large funding cuts and tuition has increased rapidly.

The school would be the only one in the UC system without its own hospital, an arrangement that vastly reduces costs through partnerships with local hospitals and clinics.

"This is a momentous decision for Inland Southern California and for UC Riverside," UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White said in a statement. "This medical school is critically needed to address our region's physician shortage and stimulate the local economy."

Dan Hunt, the national agency's co-secretary, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Traditionally, the accrediting committee does not reveal details of the internal debate that may surround its decisions.

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UC Riverside medical school clears hurdle

How a local government, university, hospital, medical school, non-profit, and corporation in Bethlehem, Pennslyvania are working together in an approach to education that encompasses health and well-being.

Just getting to school each day, for the students of Broughal Middle School in the south side of Bethlehem, PA, was a strike against their ability to achieve in the classroom.

When undergrads from Lehigh University spent a week following students to and from school with hand-held devices that measure air pollutants, they found that the kids' daily walks could be contributing to the high rates of asthma that were keeping them out of the classroom.

Redirecting their path through the major intersections of downtown Bethlehem, the city joined forces with community partners to repurpose an old railroad line into a safer path to school. It's lined with trees, ends half a block away from Broughal's front doors, and, if those hand-held monitors are to be believed, contains significantly cleaner air.

Such are the small changes that the national community school initiative aims to bring about, aided by mutually beneficial partnerships. "We think that health and education go together," said Martin Blank, President of Institute for Educational Leadership and Director of the Coalition for Community Schools. "While some people in the education reform business don't want to acknowledge the linkage -- they think it's all academic -- the reality is that kids who are sick miss school time." Among other initiatives, the Coalition works closely with the National Assembly for School-Based Health Care to address the high rates of chronic absence that often occur in areas where diseases like asthma are common among students and good primary care is unavailable to them.

In Bethlehem, the government (the department of Parks and Recreation), the university (Lehigh), the hospital (St. Luke's), the medical school (the St. Luke's campus of Temple University), a non-profit (the United Way of Greater Lehigh Valley), and a locally-owned corporate sponsor (Just Born, Inc) work together on goals tailored to the community's unique needs, and to the willingness of its partners to help meet them. With the public school as its hub, the partnership focuses everyone's efforts on common goals.

"If kids are growing up in an environment where they are healthy and eating well, and where their parents are committed to their own growth and development, and have opportunities for good jobs, the chances of our students being able to learn better go up significantly," said Dr. George White, Iacocca Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders (CDUEL) at Lehigh University.

The community health initiative is only one part of the larger project, which also emphasizes literacy and numeracy and adult education and job training. And the Greenway, as they're calling the new route to school, arose from the simple realization that students can't thrive if their basic health needs aren't met. The students, 94 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch and many of whom are at a high risk of diabetes, are also benefiting from healthier meals. Their breakfasts and lunches -- along with the community's two new farmer's markets -- include items grown in the after-school organic gardening club's greenhouse, which itself will soon be supporting by a composting program via Lehigh's engineering department. A fitness center is open both before and after school. According to Blank, schools often work to integrate such practical health education into their classroom curriculum.

There's also a dental office right in the school building -- twice a month, St. Luke's sends a dentist to perform fillings and extractions. The community college, for its part, sends over people from its dental hygienist program for cleanings. Once a month on Saturdays (and soon to be twice a month) for the past year and a half, the Temple University medical students have run a free clinic for un- and under-insured families. The school provides the space, physicians volunteer their time, and undergraduates at Lehigh who are just starting to explore the field of medicine are trained to work as "health coaches." The students follow-up with patients by giving them rides to pick up their medication, for example, or showing them how to use blood pressure cuffs.

"It's not just do-gooder work," said White. "In each of these cases, the partners gain as much as they give." The medical students, for example, get valuable real-world experience from their work at the clinic. In the long-term, the hope is that the wellness initiative's focus on prevention and healthy lifestyles will strengthen the health of the overall community. The potential benefits for all of Bethlehem are wide-ranging.

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A Community Success Story: Combining Public and Private Sectors for Health Care and Education

Amy Li 14 had two summer jobs, but her work did not end when she went home for the day. She spent half of her summer at a clinical internship in Alabama and the other half on campus doing molecular biology research.

Li was also registered to take the Medical College Admissions Test in September, so she spent her nights self-studying biology, chemistry, biochemistry and anatomy.

I wanted to study for the MCAT, but at the same time I didnt want to lose a valuable summer for clinical work or research, Li said. So I decided to just work really hard and try to do both.

Li is among a group of students who choose to take the MCAT the summer before their junior years. To these students, that summer is the perfect time to study for and take the five-hour test, which covers diverse topics including biology, organic and general chemistry, physics and anatomy and is a critical part of a students application to medical school.

Premedical students often factor studying for the test into their workloads and extracurricular options, according to Health Professions Advising director Kate Fukawa-Connelly.

You always have to take into account what youre going to be doing when you take the MCAT, Fukawa-Connelly says. If youre taking it your senior year, you have to plan your two-course semester and your thesis work with preparation for the MCAT in mind.

Li said that for students who want to go straight to medical school, the summer before junior year is an ideal time to devote to studying for the test. These students then spend their junior years focusing on schoolwork before beginning their application processes in the summer and fall of their senior years.

Its good to get it out of the way at a time thats most convenient, because you can dedicate an entire summer to studying and then focus on schoolwork during the year, Li said. It makes the most sense.

Patricia Yeh 14 also studied for and took the test this summer. Matriculating at medical school immediately after graduation was her biggest priority, she said, so in the course of planning activities for her summer, she made sure she had time to study.

I knew studying would be the most time-consuming activity I had, so I was volunteering a fair amount, but not enough to deter me from studying, she said.

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On medical school entrance exam, students get early start to stay ahead

COURTESY WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITYThird-year medical students Shanique Jarrett of Gainesville, Fla., and Alaukik Bhasin of Columbia study the structures of the human face at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

HATTIESBURG -- Brent Arnold was planning to get his doctorate in biomedical engineering from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., but in his senior year he decided he wanted to be a doctor and work directly with patients rather than doing research.

Arnold enrolled in the first class at William Carey University's College of Osteopathic Medicine and this year will begin his clinical rotations. After that, he will do an internship and residency before he begins practicing as a doctor of osteopathy, or a DO.

"William Carey is close to home and close to family," said Arnold, a native of Alexandria, La. "I want to practice in the South."

The medical school, or COM as it's known, was supposed to open in 2005, but Hurricane Katrina interrupted those plans.

"We were first contacted by the state osteopathic medical association about opening a school, but we didn't know a lot about osteopathic medicine," said Tommy King, president of William Carey. "The more we learned, the more it fit in with the mission of the university."

Osteopathic doctors are known for their "whole person" approach to medicine, rather than just treating symptoms. They focus on preventive health care and natural treatment rather than medicine, although they can prescribe medication.

"It's the osteopathic emphasis on the holistic approach that we liked," said Darrell Lovins, dean of the medical school. "We treat the whole person."

King said that 76 of Mississippi's 82 counties are considered medically underserved, and the university wanted to provide more medical care to areas of the state that need it.

"We had investors ready to put up the money, but then Katrina hit," he said. "We were preoccupied with recovery from Katrina, but when we got on our feet, we started thinking about it again."

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WC medical school training doctors of osteopathy

HONOLULU

Hawaii is launching a new program to attract doctors and nursesto under-served areas, by offering to help then payoff their medical school loans.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced this latest health care outreach Thursday at the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Thanks to $300,000 in seed money from the Queens Medical Center and the Hawaii Medical Services Association,the state will be able to get matching federal funds to hire primary care doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in rural areas.

"Sometimes it's harder to get them there because primary care pays lower, and certain positions in rural areas pay lower. But, this can assure people that at least they dont have to worry about their school loans," said Dr. Kelly Withy, director of the Hawaii Area Health Education Center.

Besides helping to provide care to areas like Molokai, Hana, Maui and Pahoa on the Big Island, the program will also cover staff at prison clinics as well the community health centers on Oahu.

Big Island Sen Josh Green came to the islands under a similarly structured program years ago. The National Health Corps launched him from Pittsberg, to Kau.

"I went into family practice and I would have had enormous debt. Kau had no doctor and that's how we provided healthcare for Kau in Big Island for many years. This program is a direct product of the experience that I had," said Green.

The new program will pay $40,000 in school loans each year, in exchange for working in a high-need area.

"For full-time service, it is $40,000. We would like to add part -time which is $20,000. We would like to add other services as behavioral health and dental," Withy said.

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New program to ease doctor shortage, medical school debt

WORCESTER Two professors at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are playing a role in a global effort to unlock the mysteries of the human genome, which is the complete set of genetic instructions for humans.

Medical school professors Job Dekker and Zhiping Weng participated in an international consortium of scientists from 32 institutions that made headlines this month with its findings. The scientists involved in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements project, or ENCODE, announced that parts of the genome often dismissed in the past as junk DNA actually play an important role in regulating what genes do.

Through the projects research, scientists have gained an understanding of 80.4 percent of the human genome, the UMass Medical School professors said.

That is a tremendous improvement in our understanding of the genome, said Mr. Dekker, who holds a doctorate and is professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology and co-director of the schools Systems Biology program.

Researchers involved in the project used a range of experimental approaches to understand what pieces of DNA are regulating genes. The research labs of Mr. Dekker and Ms. Weng, who holds a doctorate and is the director of the medical schools program in bioinformatics and integrative biology, worked on separate projects that contributed to the effort.

The findings of the international project appeared in 30 papers published in the journals Nature, Genome Research and Genome Biology. Mr. Dekker was the lead author of one of the Nature papers. The results of Ms. Wengs efforts were published in Genome Research. The consortiums work received funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The professors touted the data produced by ENCODE which built upon the Human Genome Project completed in 2003 as the basis for further study in the genetic causes of human disease and a potential boon for pharmaceutical and other medical research.

For the past decade, Mr. Dekker has helped develop methods to create three-dimensional models of folded chromosomes. Those models can be used to determine which parts of the genome touch each other, according to the medical school.

Scientists have believed for a number of years that a regulatory element could control a gene by physically interacting with that gene, Mr. Dekker said. His goal is to measure the three-dimensional structure to see which regulatory elements physically touch what genes, he said.

We have gone from this view of the genome where we have here and there a gene and then large sections of unknown of territory, Mr. Dekker said. We now have a much richer picture of the genome, where we can see genes, and we can set lots and lots of these regulatory elements.

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UMass Med professors are sleuths of the genome

The cost of medical education poses the biggest challenge for medical students, according to a national survey of students released Sept. 13.

Theyre really seeing the bills piling up as the costs for medical school go up year after year, said Erica Sniad Morgenstern, spokeswoman for the health information technology company Epocrates.

The company surveyed 1,015 students in August who use its drug reference tool at more than 160 medical schools nationwide. Medical school costs have been an increasing challenge for students in the seven years the company has been conducting the survey, she said.

The average student debt is $162,000 for allopathic students and $205,674 for osteopathic medicine students, according to the latest data from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges and the American Assn. of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. Eighty-six percent of allopathic medical school graduates and 91% of osteopathic medicine college graduates had educational debt in 2011.

Milla Kviatkovsky, a third-year medical student at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said she wishes she had taken cost more into consideration when deciding where to go. Depending on the school, tuition and other expenses can range from $20,000 to $60,000 a year, she said.

I think the cost of medical education has become one of the biggest factors, said Kviatkovsky, one of the surveyed students.

The cost of medical education was cited as the top challenge by 45% of surveyed students. The second-biggest challenge cited by 22% of respondents was the sheer volume of information that students must learn.

In a separate question, students were asked about their concerns as future physicians. Fifty-three percent cited being a good physician as among their biggest concerns, 47% mentioned balancing work and personal life, and 30% said they were worried about paying off student loans.

Overall, students ranked their medical school experiences as positive, but many said they would like to have more direct contact with patients and more education about the business side of medicine, Morgenstern said.

The majority of students were satisfied with their training in areas such as bedside manner, patient safety and infection prevention and control. Students indicated that they were less satisfied with other aspects of their education, including billing and coding, practice management and interaction with hospital administration (epocrates.com/who/media/mediaresources/statistics).

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Med students’ biggest challenges: educational costs, workload

State Sen. Kirk Watson has been the architect and the face of a campaign for a medical school and other health projects in Austin for just over a year. But the Austin Democrat worked quietly on a medical school for several years before he thrust himself into the spotlight last September at the urging of other proponents who felt he had the ability and moxie to get it done.

Now Watson has linked his goal of establishing a medical school to winning voter approval of a Travis County-wide property tax increase in November to support the endeavor.

Watson, 54, has taken on other daunting challenges in more than 20 years of off-and-on public life. He fought off testicular cancer, was mayor of Austin during a tech bust that started in 2000 and in 2002 lost a race for state attorney general.

Yet to hear him speak these days, nothing is more important and, perhaps, more career-defining than establishing a medical school at the University of Texas, as well as a new teaching hospital, comprehensive cancer-care center and other elements of what supporters call Watsons 10 in 10 10 health care goals to achieve in 10 years.

We have so many good people ready to do it that success is immensely possible, and to not do it and not get started on the path would be extraordinarily regrettable, Watson said last fall. This is big. Its going to be hard. But it needs to be done.

A watershed moment will come in November, when Travis County voters decide whether to increase their property taxes to help underwrite those goals. That question has been put on the ballot by Central Health, Travis Countys hospital district, at Watsons urging. He proposed the amount of the rate increase, a nickel per $100 of property value, before the districts board had publicly discussed any figures.

Moreover, it was Watson who helped make it possible for Central Health to hold a tax election. He authored 2007 legislation that gave the agency overseeing health care for the needy Travis County residents broader taxing, contracting and other powers than other hospital districts in the state.

Numerous civic, business and other groups have endorsed the proposed tax increase, but it has drawn criticism as well, including from some people who question Watsons ties to Central Health. For one thing, Central Health has paid Watsons law firm, Brown McCarroll LLP, $262,675 since May for legal work on the 10 in 10 plan and other matters. Four ethicists outside of Texas saw no conflict of interest but said Watson and others could have been more transparent.

Other players in the health initiatives, including officials of the University of Texas System and of the Seton Healthcare Family, say they encouraged Watson to take the lead on the medical school. Watson followed up with a speech a year ago this month at the Four Seasons Hotel unveiling his 10 in 10 plan.

Everybody was going off in different directions, said Kenneth Shine, executive vice chancellor of health affairs for the UT System. We said, We ought to create a community-based activity with people brought together from various entities. In the course of that discussion, we said, You know, the person who has the greatest credibility, the best organizational skills and great interest is Kirk Watson.

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Watson takes glory, risks on medical school

St. Davids HealthCare, the second largest hospital system in Central Texas, has been unusually quiet on the notion of establishing a medical school in Austin.

Executives there also have not spoken out on a proposed tax increase for health care services some of which would go toward underwriting medical school services. On Nov. 6, Travis County voters will decide whether to increase the Central Health portion of the property tax rate from 7.89 cents per $100 of assessed value to 12.9 cents, a 63 percent increase.

Officials at the Seton Healthcare Family, St. Davids chief competitor, have made no secret that they back a medical school, along with a proposed new teaching hospital, upgraded clinics and a comprehensive cancer center championed by state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin. Indeed, Seton has pledged $250 million to build the hospital.

St. Davids President and CEO David Huffstutler serves on a Watson committee working on the projects. In addition, St. Davids is a key partner with Central Health, providing charity care to needy patients and services to Central Healths women patients who want sterilizations, as well as rape victims seeking emergency medication. The Catholic-owned Seton says it cant provide those services. Consequently, St. Davids also trains medical residents on those services and expects that to continue.

Huffstutler discussed these issues with the Statesman on Thursday. An edited version of his remarks follows:

St. Davids has been pretty quiet about the proposed medical school and tax increase on the ballot in November. Are you opposed?

We dont oppose the medical school. Were generally supportive of a medical school. We believe it will be good for economic development. If there is a physican shortage (an argument proponents have made for a medical school), we believe residency slots are more important than undergraduate medical education in getting physicians on the ground in the state. (After the state reduced funding for residency slots) there is obvious concern about supporting those slots. If we dont have the slots, the medical students we educate will leave.

Thats not a rousing endorsement.

I dont know that the way the process has worked has been completely inclusive or completely transparent. While I have been participating on (state Sen. Kirk Watsons) organizing committee, thats not really where the work is being done. We have some questions about how this is all going to work.

What questions?

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St. David’s chief gives qualified support to medical school, tax increase

Case Western Reserve University's plan to build a spacious, modern facility to house its excellent medical school is good news in and of itself.

The school, already considered to be among the nation's best, is certain to improve its standing with accreditors at the Association of American Medical Colleges once its professors and medical students take possession of a 160,000-square-foot building that will stand on East 105th Street, at the former site of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

The new school will have room for more students -- a plus as the nation enters an era during which a greater need for primary care doctors is a certainty -- and will offer a greatly improved learning environment.

What makes news of the project even better is the support it enjoys from two major local foundations. The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation will each contribute $10 million to its support -- a record for each foundation.

With the Cleveland Foundation's declaration of support came the added pledge that the contribution toward the new medical school would be the first of a number of large grants to be announced as the foundation approaches its centennial in 2014. The promise of a burst of extraordinary activity by Cleveland's charitable colossus is welcome indeed.

In announcing their backing for the new medical school, both foundations recognized the impact that improvements at the medical school can have on the entire region. Solidifying Northeast Ohio's growing reputation as a national center of medical and biomedical expertise is of vital importance.

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Plan for new Case Western Reserve University medical school deserves support: editorial

Published: Sept. 25, 2012 at 1:20 AM

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Thirty percent at a U.S. medical school intending to become a primary care physician switched to a high-paying specialty by graduation, U.S. researchers say.

Lead author Dr. Martha Grayson, senior associate dean of medical education at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, was at the New York Medical College at the time of the study. Grayson and colleagues surveyed more than 2,500 medical students attending either New York Medical College or the Brody School of Medicine.

Over an 18-year period -- from 1992 to 2010 -- the medical school students were surveyed in their first and fourth years about the area of medicine they planned to enter, their anticipated debt upon graduation, the annual income they anticipated five years after completing residency and the importance they placed on income in general, Grayson explained.

A 2010 Medical Group Management Association income survey found primary care physicians earned nearly $200,000 per year and those in 12 high-paying specialties selected by the researchers earned double -- with an average of just under $400,000 per year. Medical school students have an average $158,000 in student loan debt.

The study, published online in Medical Education, found medical students who anticipated high levels of debt upon graduation and placed a premium on high income were more likely to enter a high-paying medical specialty such as radiology, anesthesiology or dermatology than to enter primary care.

"The income gap between primary care and specialty physicians started growing in earnest in 1979, and now we're seeing the consequences of that ongoing trend," Grayson said in a statement.

More here:
Some reject $200,000 primary care physician pay

by Dr. Jon Hallberg, Minnesota Public Radio, Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio

September 25, 2012

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ST. PAUL, Minn. Another year of medical school at the University of Minnesota is underway, and physician and instructor Jon Hallberg says these new students have some advantages over his generation of aspiring doctors.

Hallberg, who teaches "Essentials of Clinical Medicine" at the University of Minnesota Medical School, spoke with MPR's Tom Crann this week. Hallberg is a physician in family medicine at the University of Minnesota and medical director of the Mill City Clinic.

Tom Crann: First, you're back for a month. How's it going?

Dr. Jon Hallberg: I love it. I forgot how much I really love teaching.

Crann: These are first-year students right now that you're teaching. What are they learning right now?

Hallberg: Well, they have their basic science courses. One of the big ones they have is gross anatomy, so they're actually in the anatomy lab dissecting cadavers with teams, but my part, the clinical medicine part, is learning how to talk to patients, learning how to examine them.

Crann: Essentials of Clinical Medicine what are you doing in that class with these students?

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Dr. Jon Hallberg: New class of medical students underway

by MARK WIGGINS / KVUE News and photojournalist SCOTT MCKENNEY

kvue.com

Posted on September 24, 2012 at 6:25 PM

Updated yesterday at 6:41 PM

AUSTIN -- Posters popping up across town urge passers-by to "stop the bleeding." They are signs that opposition to a new University of Texas medical school and teaching hospital in Austin is organizing.

"We say that the way to keep Austin healthy is to 'stop the bleeding,'" said Don Zimmerman, founder and treasurer of the Travis County Taxpayers Union, a political action committee (PAC) dedicated to opposing a tax increase to fund the project. The committee is a counterpart to Keep Austin Healthy, a PAC created by supporters of the project.

Zimmerman argues a five-cent increase proposed by Central Health, equivalent to about $100 a year on a $200,000 home, is too much to ask of a community that has seen property taxes steadily rise.

"We're dying a death by a thousand cuts," said Zimmerman. "Each one of these taxes and each one of the tax increases by itself doesn't drive you out of your home, but when you add up all the property taxes and all the increases, people are literally being taxed out of their homes."

Along with investment from the University of Texas and Seton Healthcare Family, State Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) says the $35 million contributed by Austinites through a tax increase would be matched by more than $86 million in federal Medicaid funds.

Watson contracted TXP, Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm specializing in economic analysis, to study the impact of the project. Speaking with KVUE in August, president and founder Jon Hockenyos provided a detailed breakdown of economic data predicting a gain of 15,000 jobs and roughly $2 billion in economic activity as a result of the project.

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Opponents raise questions over proposed UT medical school