Arizona Gains 2 New Medical Schools

Two new medical schools -- one allopathic and one osteopathic -- were officially inaugurated in Arizona this week.

The University of Arizona held opening ceremonies for the College of Medicine in Phoenix on October 10. The school, which marks an innovative collaboration between UA, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and a biomedical research firm, the Translational Genomics Institute (TGen), hopes to enroll its first group of two dozen medical students next summer. Eventually school officials hope to graduate 150 M.D.s each year, which would make the UA College of Medicine - Phoenix the largest medical school in the state.

Several weeks earlier, Missouri-based A.T. Still University received accreditation for an osteopathic medical campus it had established in Mesa. The Mesa campus will welcome its first class of 100 D.O. students next July.

State officials hope that both schools will graduate physicians who elect to stay and practice in Arizona, which has a chronic shortage of trained medical personnel.

Sources:

"UA Medical School Opens Its Phoenix Campus Today," by Howard Fischer - the Arizona Daily Star, October 10, 2006

"Medical School Prepping in Mesa," by J.J. Hensley - the Arizona Republic, October 13, 2006