Medical school plan could mean more rural doctors

AUGUSTA, Ga. — One of Georgia’s medical schools wants to embark on a plan that could put dozens of new doctors in rural parts of the state.

Medical College of Georgia wants a program that would help pay tuition for doctors who serve in rural areas, where there’s a need for more physicians, The Augusta Chronicle reported. Under the proposal, the Augusta institution also would expand by 50 students and shorten its medical school to three years.

The initiative is “the biggest thing we’ve done since 1828,” Medical College of Georgia Dean David Hess said. That’s the year the school was founded.

Hess and Augusta University President Brooks Keel have approached state leaders about the plan. They’ve also pitched the idea of the state paying tuition for students who agree to spend at least six years in underserved areas of the state, the Augusta newspaper reported.

A physician shortage is driving the proposal to add an additional 50 students, Hess said. The state ranks near the bottom in physicians per capita. Most of the areas which are considered underserved are outside metro Atlanta.

“So we said if we’re going to do this, why don’t we do something novel and innovative?” Hess said. “If we’re going to increase by 50, let’s reduce the medical school [debt] because the other thing we have been working on is our student debt.”

The change from four years to three means one less year of medical school tuition, he said.

The idea has taken hold in other parts of the country.

New York University’s School of Medicine began a three-year program in 2013. That institution and seven others with accelerated three-year programs formed the Consortium of Accelerated Medical Pathway Programs in 2015. The group now includes a dozen U.S. medical schools, including Mercer University’s School of Medicine in Georgia.