Representatives of Missouri Southern State University, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, and local hospitals met with tri-state region business leaders and government officials June 30 to promote a proposal for a medical school on the MSSU campus in Joplin.
Speakers urged those attending to back the proposal because demonstrating community support would be a requirement for the school's accreditation.
Dr. Richard Schooler, chief medical officer for Joplin-based Freeman Health System, said KCUMB's proposal to open a school of osteopathic medicine at MSSU in fall 2011 presents Joplin and all of southern Missouri with "an extraordinary opportunity."
CoxHealth representatives attended the June 30 meeting in Joplin.
In an e-mail, CoxHealth President and CEO Bob Bezanson said the development of a medical school would improve future access to health care for southwest Missouri residents, and he noted the accomplishments of the CoxHealth Family Medicine Residency program, which graduates eight students each year.
However, the proponents acknowledged such a venture faces several challenges.
"The program in Joplin is very ambitious and finding sufficient clinical sites will be a challenge," Bezanson said in the e-mail. "At CoxHealth, this will be a decision of the medical staff and require their support. As of this date, the program has not been presented to our medical staff leadership."
The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education would have to approve the school, which MSSU President Bruce Speck said via prerecorded remarks would "undoubtedly" prompt objections from other state institutions. Speck said criticism should be muted because the medical school would not rely on state operating funds.
In addition to CBHE approval, the medical school would have to gain accreditation and garner agreements for clinical sites across southern Missouri for third- and fourth-year students.
Freeman President and CEO Gary Duncan said the hospital system already has agreed to host clinical students and urged hospitals in Joplin, Springfield and Cape Girdardeau to agree to accept students.
"It is best for our three regions to take control of our destiny," Duncan said.
Another challenge, Speck said, would be a lack of classroom space at MSSU. The university, he said, would have to add labs and offices for KCUMB faculty.
Freeman's Schooler outlined the need for a medical school in southern Missouri. Counties across the southern half of the state face a physician shortage and the lack of a medical school makes it difficult for the region to attract doctors, he said. Schooler explained that a majority of physicians establish practices within 75 to 100 miles of where they serve as residents and there are only a few residency programs at hospitals in Joplin, Springfield, and Cape Girardeau.
Schooler said that he believed the biggest challenges to the school opening as proposed would be KCUMB raising the funds for the school's initial operating costs, establishing a clinical network, and MSSU building the facilities.
Joplin ear, nose, and throat specialist Dr. Larry McIntire first presented the idea of a medical school at MSSU in 2008. But McIntire's proposal for a stand-alone program derailed as the projected startup cost for a new medical school escalated.
McIntire, however, shared his vision with KCUMB President Karen Pletz.
"I caught the dream," Pletz said. "He was very fervent about what he wanted to do."
McIntire, Pletz, Speck and others then developed an outline for the first partnership between a public university and a private medical education provider.
KCUMB, founded in 1916, is the largest medical school in the state in terms of student population and one of the oldest osteopathic medical schools in the U.S. Pletz said KCUMB offers a patient-centered curriculum, a values-based medical education and emphasizes community service. She said there are more than 300 KCUMB graduates in southwest Missouri.
Pletz said that no public funds would be used to operate the medical school at MSSU.
Dwight Douglas, general counsel for Freeman and a member of the MSSU Board of Governors, said that the proposal is a good fit for the university as it already offers six graduate degrees in partnership with other institutions.
Douglas said it would cost MSSU approximately $7 million to build a facility to house the medical school. Douglas said the university already has about half of that amount and would raise the remainder. Pletz said that MSSU would retain the naming rights for the medical school's building.
The proposed medical school would graduate 150 students each year, Pletz said.
State Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, asked why - if the school is meant to serve all of southern Missouri - the meeting was taking place in Joplin rather than Springfield.
Douglas responded that it was because McIntire developed and pushed the idea.
"You can't drive these efforts without a vision," Douglas said.[[In-content Ad]]
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