UC Riverside medical school clears hurdle

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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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WC medical school training doctors of osteopathy

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

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

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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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New program to ease doctor shortage, medical school debt

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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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UMass Med professors are sleuths of the genome

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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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Med students’ biggest challenges: educational costs, workload

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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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Watson takes glory, risks on medical school

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

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

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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.

Plain Dealer editorials express the view of The Plain Dealer's editorial board -- the publisher, editor and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the newspaper.

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Some reject $200,000 primary care physician pay

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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.

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Dr. Jon Hallberg: New class of medical students underway

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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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Opponents raise questions over proposed UT medical school

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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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Free Weekly Clinic Run by Medical Students Helps Patients Get Essential Care

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Students gain skills & understanding while serving uninsured patients under supervision of faculty doctors

Newswise ANN ARBOR, Mich. Uninsured residents of rural Livingston County, Mich. and surrounding areas who need health care have a new option to turn to every Saturday afternoon: a free medical clinic run entirely by University of Michigan Medical School students.

The students, and U-M faculty physicians, volunteer their time to provide free primary care each week at a storefront clinic in Pinckney.

The U-M Student Run Free Clinic, as it is called, uses the same location as the Faith Medical Clinic, a free-care site for patients without insurance that offers appointments on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. On the afternoon of Oct. 6, the team will hold an Open House to welcome the community.

For the U-M students, the free clinic is not just a chance to give back to the community its also a chance to get to learn more about opportunities to care for the uninsured and to know the administrative and business side of medicine.

Students plan for and handle all the details and challenges of running the clinic, and deal with everything from appointment scheduling and interviewing new arrivals, to entering information into a computerized medical record system. The U-M Medical School Deans office is providing funding, as is Michigan Central Student Government.

Already in the clinics pilot period, the students and their faculty supervisors have seen patients with everything from simple ailments to chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and shoulder joint issues.

The students handle all aspects of the visit except for those that require a licensed physician -- a role filled by a faculty physician from the Medical School. Patients who need more advanced care receive a referral and help in finding low-cost or free options, including through the U-M Health Systems own charity care program.

The U-M Student Run Free Clinic gives our students a real sense of all the moving parts that must be aligned to create a well-run clinic, the issues facing the uninsured and the importance of caring for all in our communities, says Hari Conjeevaram, M.D., M.Sc., an associate professor of internal medicine who is the lead faculty advisor to the clinic team and medical director of the clinic. Although health care reform should give more uninsured Americans access to care over the next few years, services like the Faith Clinic and our student-run clinic provide a vital safety net for non-emergency and preventive care.

The experience of running the clinic and taking patients vital signs and medical histories is especially important for the first- and second-year medical students, whose classroom studies dont yet bring them into contact with patients.

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Mount Sinai School of Medicine Bringing Free Courses Online

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Newswise Mount Sinai School of Medicine has signed an agreement with Coursera.org that will make Mount Sinai graduate and medical school courses freely available online.

Mount Sinai will begin by offering three courses that focus on training students to use computation to convert the information in large and small data-sets in biomedical sciences to understand disease progression, adverse events in individual patients, and to predict efficacy of drug therapy. The three courses Introduction to Systems Biology, Networks Analyses in Systems Biology, and Mathematical Models in Systems Biology will be offered in 2013. The courses provide a solid basis for understanding the new era of personalized and precision medicine that is being made possible by advanced gene sequencing technologies.

John Morrison, PhD, Dean of the Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biological Sciences, said, The rigorous courses that we are putting up on Coursera, the planned interactions and the testing formats have the ability to completely change graduate education. Today, like most schools, our programs have one to two years of classes followed by several years of research or clinical training. If the online formats take hold then didactic learning can be interspersed through the research or clinical training years. We can also offer our courses world-wide for free, thus greatly enhancing the reach of our educational mission.

Leading Mount Sinais effort to put courses online is Ravi Iyengar, PhD, The Rosenstiel Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics and Director of Systems Biology Center New York.

My sense is we are at a transformative time in higher education and Coursera is one driver of this change both for off- and on-campus education, said Dr. Iyengar. The ability to provide free high quality courses in an emerging area of biomedical sciences provides us with exciting opportunities to engage current and future scholars world-wide. For graduate students, such online courses will allow them to get formal training in new areas as their research interests start to gel. For medical students it will allow them to learn details and mechanisms as they see patients. In pharmacology, it would be great to teach in an integrated manner drug action mechanisms and drug usage as students go through their clerkships, rather than in a classroom a year or two earlier. Online courses may well allow to accomplish this goal.

The development of these courses has been supported in part by a Systems Biology Center grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nations oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nations top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org. Find Mount Sinai on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mountsinainyc Twitter @mountsinainyc YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/mountsinainy

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Mount Sinai School of Medicine Bringing Free Courses Online

Special Ceremony Held For Inaugural Class Of Cooper Medical School

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By Hadas Kuznits

CAMDEN, N. J. (CBS) Medical students in Camden underwent a special ceremony on Friday.

Dr. Paul Katz, dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, says its a very special moment when a medical student puts on their white coat for the first time. Thats why a special ceremony was held for the incoming class.

The white coat is very symbolic of being a physician and this is the day where we give them the white coat but more than that, really welcome them to the profession, Dr. Katz explains.

It was also a special moment for the school, with this being the inaugural class.

Weve told this class that there will only be one charter class in the history of this medical school and it is them, Dr. Katz says.

He says many people have been waiting a long time for this moment, not just the students.

The idea around a medical school in Camden goes back 40 years; so this idea has been out and about for a while and were really very pleased for all the people that kept this dream alive that we now have the opportunity to get this school started, says Dr. Katz.

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Special Ceremony Held For Inaugural Class Of Cooper Medical School

Opposing groups debate medical school proposition

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On Friday the Austin-Travis County EMS union held a press conference to endorse the health district's Proposition 1State Senator Kirk Watsons plan to bring a medical to Austin and expanding care to more residents.

"A lot of people in our community that don't currently have a medical home will have a medical home in community clinics, will have better wellness programs, Sen. Watson said.

Meanwhile, members of the Travis County Taxpayers Union are protesting the property tax hike that the proposition requires. For a $200,000 home, the tax would come out to an additional $100 per year.

"That number was not chosen on what Austinites can afford, Laura Pressley, Proposition 1 opponent, said.

For every dollar local taxpayers spend on the project, the federal government will put in $1.50. Supporters call that a boon, but opponents call it an empty promise.

"The problem is that is coming from a bankrupt government. I promise you, cuts are coming, opponent Roger Fall said. Where are we going to fill that dollar-fifty gap? Where's that money coming from?"

Those opposed to the tax hike say it's simply too much for Austin families to shoulder. Energy and water rates are already going up, and other bond item will be on the November ballot.

Meanwhile, supporters say bringing a medical school to Austin will generate $2 billion dollars for the economy each year.

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U-M Medical School to host service in memory of anatomical gift donors

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The University of Michigan Medical School will be honoring those that have donated their bodies to science in a memorial service 6 p.m. Wednesday at Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor.

The ceremony includes remarks by medical students for the families of those who have given anatomical gifts to medical education and research, and usually is attended by about 1,000 people, said Dean Mueller, coordinator of the Anatomical Donations Program at U-M.

University of Michigan Medical School students hand flowers to family members of anatomical gift donors during a memorial service in 2007. The school's annual memorial service is 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Courtesy of U-M

The Medical School receives about 300 anatomical gifts per year, and has been hosting the memorial ceremony annually in September since the first anatomical gift donations to the university were recorded in 1817 - before the formation of the medical school.

About 7,000 people have pre-registered to donate their bodies to the program, Mueller said. The next of kin also can determine if they want to donate a body to the program.

Med students wear their white lab coats during the ceremony and are able to connect with the families of the people who donated their bodies. The students also are very involved with the planning and execution of the event, Mueller said.

Theres sadness and laughter, and a great appreciation for what goes on, Mueller said.

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U-M Medical School to host service in memory of anatomical gift donors

CMU receives approval from Higher Learning Commission to grant doctor of medicine degrees

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MOUNT PLEASANT, MI Central Michigan Universitys medical school continues to move forward, and now has approval from the Higher Learning Commission.

The commissions approval of the College of Medicines degree means CMU can offer and grant doctor of medicine degrees.

The College of Medicine will open in summer 2013 with its first class of 60 students.

The college has received 1,972 applications. Admissions are open until Dec. 15.

The approval includes access to Title IV funding and allows CMU medical school students to apply for federal financial aid and receive full financial aid packages.

This is a positive step in the recruitment of the first class of medical students, providing the opportunity for them to receive their financial aid packages right away upon being accepted to the college, said Claudia Douglass, interim vice provost for academic affairs.

The Higher Learning Commission Institutional Actions Council will conduct a site visit in the 2013-14 school year to CMUs College of Medicine to assess the programs quality.

CMU Medical Education Partners, which includes both hospitals, will manage five residency programs, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery and plan a sixth in psychiatry.

The Saginaw medical school locations for clinical education will be at 600 Irving near Covenant and at Hoyt and South Franklin near St. Marys.

The hospitals are expected to contribute more than $16 million to graduate medical education.

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CMU receives approval from Higher Learning Commission to grant doctor of medicine degrees

Med school admits largest class ever

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The Alpert Medical School welcomed its largest class ever this year totalling 120 students following the opening of the schools downtown facility last fall. With the building constructed in downtown Providences Knowledge District able to accommodate more students, the school matriculated 11 additional students in this years class, up from 109 in the class of 2015. The school has expanded from 310 students in 2001 to 421 students this year, according to Ed Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences.

The admittance of the Med Schools largest-ever class was made possible by the new facility, Wing said. Admitting classes of 120 will expand the school to 480 students in the next few years, he said.

Its a terrific building, Wing said, adding that the schools old space in the BioMedical Center did not allow for expansion. Everything in the (new) building has allowed us to provide better education.

The Med School also witnessed a surge in applications for spots in the class of 2016, with a roughly 20 percent increase from 2,825 applicants in 2011 to 3,344 applications in 2012, according to Philip Gruppuso, associate dean of medical education and professor of pediatrics.

There is in general a physician shortage in the United States, Gruppuso said. He noted that the Association of American Medical Colleges has called for a substantial increase in the countrys supply of doctors and that the University is hoping to aid this goal. Gruppuso said the Med Schools expansion was part of a long-term process that occurred after administrators received permission from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting organization for medical degree programs.

Wing said administrators have nothing definite planned to expand the student body any further than 480 students.

The Med School hired more staff to accommodate the larger building, but they did not need to hire more faculty members, Wing said, adding that the school boasts a total of 2,000 faculty members, including 600 full-time clinical faculty. The Med School revamped its curriculum but did not add additional classes or expand the size of courses.

Gruppuso said the University is still considered a small medical school according to national rankings of medical degree programs by size.

We had space and resources and faculty to be able to meet the needs of this number of students, he said. We were very confident this (expansion) was not going to result in any kind of erosion of the quality of the medical program.

As part of its expansion, the Med School introduced a new academy model of advising and training last year, with each class divided into three academies of around 40 students in order to facilitate greater advising services and a better sense of community. Each academy space provides locker and study space, designated advisers and other training services to students to help break down the student body into smaller sections.

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Med school admits largest class ever