by Brooke Bunch

OU-COM Dean Jack Brose, D.O., traveled to Columbus Wednesday, March 9, to testify to the Higher Education Subcommittee of the House of Representatives' Finance and Appropriations Committee on the funding of Ohio’s seven medical schools. The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Shawn Webster of Hamilton. Rep. Jimmy Stewart of Athens is vice chairman. In January, Webster visited the college on a fact-finding tour with Stewart.

Brose, recently elected chairman of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans, testified at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on behalf of all Ohio medical schools. He talked about a variety of topics, including the multiple benefits brought to the state by the medical schools and some of the problems posed by the state’s proposed budget in regard to medical education.

Brose testified that there is a looming physician shortage, which was front-page news in the March 3 edition of USA Today.

“The physician workforce is aging and retiring earlier. Medical schools need to ensure that there are adequate physicians to replace them,” he told the committee. “As our society ages, the need for medical care will continue to increase. It is important that the physician workforce adjusts to accommodate this patient population.”

“Ohio is already understaffed with 239 physicians per 100,000 residents compared to 251 physicians per 100,000 residents nationwide,” Brose said. “This will pose significant problems, especially in areas of Ohio that are already underserved.”

Brose noted that Ohio medical schools not only supply outstanding physicians but bring tremendous economic benefits to the state as well. “Ohio’s teaching hospitals and clinics provide world-class care and serve the underserved,” he said. “No one would argue that we have some of the best teaching hospitals in the world. Our hospitals, clinics and community outreach programs supply an enormous amount of non-reimbursed care.”

In addition, said Brose, Ohio’s medical schools have made significant strides in medical discovery. He listed major medical advances coming from each of the seven Ohio medical schools, including the discovery of a drug to effectively treat acromegaly, an excess in growth hormone, by OU-COM faculty member John Kopchick, Ph.D., Goll-Ohio Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Brose urged the committee to keep Ohio’s medical schools and their numerous benefits in mind during the budget process, adding the schools are training the right number of students for the state, while returning more revenue to the state than it is costing to train them. He addressed specific line items in the proposed budget that could negatively affect the medical colleges and proposed alternatives.

“We want to work with the Ohio Legislature to maintain the nation’s best medical training system in the most efficient way possible,” he said. “Ohio’s medical school deans are working closely together to maximize efficiency and avoid redundancy.”

Brose said the hearing was attended by members of the Board of Regents and many other key people involved in higher education. There was standing room only at the hearing.

“The tenor of the questions was very positive” says Brose. Following Brose’s testimony, Dean Lois Nora, M.D., J.D., Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine; Dean Howard Part, M.D., Wright State University College of Medicine; and Associate Dean Mark Carlson, M.D., Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, joined Brose in answering questions.

“The Higher Education Subcommittee clearly appreciates the work of Ohio’s medical schools and asked if the medical colleges had capacity to increase the number of physicians being trained,” says Brose.

“We responded that with appropriate funding, this is possible.”

Brose says he hopes his testimony will bring the issue of higher education funding to the forefront during the budget process. “It was also a nice opportunity for Ohio University and OU-COM to gain visibility at the state level.”

“As the subcommittee goes into budget deliberations, they have a clear idea of the value brought back to the state by Ohio’s medical schools, not only in terms of training physicians, but also in the non-reimbursed medical care we provide, the value of our training hospitals, the economic value the colleges bring through research, the biomedical companies spun off of the medical schools and the employment by the medical schools and teaching hospitals.”