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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.”
- 30 -
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