To address the shortage of physicians and other healthcare professionals in Hall County and north Georgia, Brenau University announced retention of the medical education consulting firm DJW Associates to conduct a feasibility study on whether the 129-year-old university should establish a medical school.

Dr. Emery A. Wilson, dean emeritus of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and principal in the Lexington, Ky.-based consulting firm, met July 16 with university and Northeast Georgia Health System hospital officials in addition to local healthcare leaders to initiate the $60,000 study. Jointly funded by the university and NGHS, the study is expected to take about six months to complete.

Wilson said that on the surface components seemed to be in place for a creation of a Brenau medical education institution: an academic environment, a regional healthcare facility nearby with more than 400 physicians on staff, and an under-served pool of potential students. Currently Georgia´s four medical schools receive 1,100 applications per year but have room to accept only 25 percent of them. Another 160 Georgia students attend out-of-state medical schools.

"There are many opportunities in health care, and we have a responsibility to investigate the best course for Brenau University," said Ed Schrader, the university´s president. "Medical education is only one component of the overall health services education field that we are evaluating."

Dr. Ken Dixon, a Gainesville oncologic surgeon, said he had conducted an informal poll of about 25 Hall County physicians and, except for one who was totally opposed and two others who were lukewarm to the idea, he found wide support for the idea of a Brenau medical school. "That´s a much more positive response than I would have predicted a month ago," he said.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that the United States by 2020 will have a shortfall of 85,000 physicians. Currently the nation´s 126 medical schools turn out about 15,000 new doctors each year. It has been two years since the newest U.S. medical school at Florida State University won full accreditation, but even with that, all Florida medical schools combined enroll only about 1,100 students. Georgia´s four medical schools, the Medical College of Georgia, Mercer, Emory and Morehouse, enroll about 400 students.

Wilson said the Association of American Medical Colleges projected that in the next decade there will be a need for about 30 percent more physicians entering the field each year. The nation´s accredited medical schools can meet only half that need by increasing enrollments. Establishment of 20 new U.S. medical schools will be required in the next 15 years to make up the deficit.

Wilson estimated that, even on fast track, it could take almost three years to get a medical school up and running. He added that there is no set size of the student body to make establishment of such an institution practical. At Wayne State University School of Medicine, the average class size is about 300 students. At Mercer University in Macon, it´s 60.

Currently Georgia´s four medical schools generate about $7.75 billion a year in economic impact, and should Brenau elect to start a medical school, it could be an economic boon to the community as well, Wilson said. The research firm Tripp Umbach estimates that the new school in Miami will generate about $1 billion a year in economic impact when it´s up and running. He said the impact of a Brenau medical school probably would be closer to that of the independent medical school that plans to open in Scranton, Pa., in 2009 - about $100 million a year.

Brenau already is engaged in professional health care education with graduate and undergraduate programs in nursing, occupational therapy and clinical psychology - all of which are growing. In the spring commencement the university awarded 42 undergraduate nursing degrees, 13 combined bachelor and master of science degrees in occupational therapy, four master´s degrees in occupational therapy and 11 master´s degrees in clinical psychology.