Med school expanding to Spokane
It isn’t often the addition of 28 students warrants a full-blown press conference and gathering of area business and education leaders. But Friday’s downtown announcement that the University of Washington plans to bring 28 medical and dental students to Spokane in 2008 generated that level of excitement.
If state legislators approve the money, the UW will bring 20 first-year medical students and eight first-year dental students to Spokane.
“This is one of the most significant achievements for our community in the past five years,” said Tony Bonanzino, past president of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, during Friday’s celebration at the Riverpoint campus in downtown Spokane.
News of the UW medical school expansion was initially confirmed in June.
Washington State University officials said they would provide faculty for the medical students, while Eastern Washington University would provide faculty for the dental program.
If approved, the expansion would be the first group of first-year UW medical students placed in Spokane. It would also mark the first increase in several decades in the number of Washington residents admitted to the UW medical school, UW officials said.
Spokane-area officials have spent nearly a decade urging the UW to bring more students to Eastern Washington. WSU and the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce both said the program will enhance Spokane’s medical and life-sciences industries.
Friday’s press conference also gave officials from the three schools a chance to elaborate on the twofold benefits expected: an increase in doctors and dentists treating Eastern Washington patients and a strengthening of the medical industry-higher education cluster in Spokane.
Mark Emmert, president of the UW, also said the students will generate more momentum for the growing Spokane University District.
“As more students and staff gather there with this program, it will generate that critical mass that will turn the district into a significant economic force,” he said.
The University District is the development zone bordered by Gonzaga University on the north, the freeway on the south and Division and Hamilton streets. The goal is to assemble businesses, medical-training and clinical centers, higher education programs and residences within the district.
The result is expected to be a vibrant urban cluster attracting new companies and creating high-paying jobs.
The UW currently has 184 medical students in each first-year class; most take courses in Seattle. The others are placed at WSU Pullman; Moscow, Idaho; Laramie, Wyo.; Bozeman; and Anchorage, Alaska. All UW medical and dental students take their second year in Seattle. Third- and fourth-year clinical work can be pursued across the five-state network.
The expansion to Spokane has taken almost 10 years. “This is just the speed it takes for a number of institutions to get together and make this happen,” said John Coombs, the UW’s vice dean for regional affairs and rural health.
WSU Spokane Chancellor Brian Pitcher said WSU will likely hire three to five new faculty members to handle the first-year program, as well as two or three support staffers.
Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said funding the added students will be a priority when the Legislature gathers in January to plan the state budget. She noted that Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she will support the program.
During the press conference Friday, WSU President V. Lane Rawlins also said the school is creating a new division devoted to the health sciences. The division will realign academic courses and health programs provided both in Spokane and in Pullman, Rawlins said.
He noted that faculty work in the life sciences counted for 65 percent of WSU research spending during the 2005 fiscal year – totaling $120 million. Health sciences is school’s fastest-expanding area of funded research, Rawlins said.