New Med School is Great for UGA. Even Better for Georgia.

Board of Regents approves a new public medical school at UGA

There’s palpable excitement in Athens lately. In February, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the creation of a new public medical school by the University of Georgia. In January, Governor Brian Kemp proposed earmarking $50 million in the state’s amended budget for a new UGA School of Medicine facility. Those funds were approved by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor at the end of February. The university will now match these funds with private contributions to build a $100 million medical education and research building on our Health Sciences Campus.

Not only is this big news for UGA, it addresses a critical need for the state.

Georgia needs more doctors

As economic incentives drive more people to live, work and study in Georgia, demand for healthcare is increasing. Right now, Georgia is the eighth most populous state in America, but it ranks 40th in the nation for the number of physicians per capita and 41st for the number of public medical students per capita. And, with the current population of physicians aging and moving into retirement, the need for doctors is even more severe.

Physicians trained at a future UGA School of Medicine will help fill that gap, but UGA isn’t starting this endeavor from scratch.

Physicians trained at a future UGA School of Medicine will help fill that gap, but UGA isn’t starting this endeavor from scratch.

Educating doctors for nearly 15 years

Since 2010, we have worked in close collaboration with our partners at the Medical College of Georgia to train physicians right here in Athens. Through this natural evolution of our partnership to become Georgia’s second public medical school, UGA will add to the number of doctors being trained in our state. Moreover, much of the infrastructure for a stand-alone medical school already exists on UGA’s 56-acre Health Sciences Campus, where physicians and scientists currently train 60 medical students per class, for a total of 240 students each year.

The new UGA medical school will attract top-tier doctors, researchers and scientists to join our outstanding faculty and contribute to our rapidly expanding university research enterprise. Together with scientists at other research universities across the state, their collective discoveries will help fuel Georgia’s economy and improve the overall health of our citizens.

NIH funding leader

UGA researchers are already working to combat a wide array of human diseases. The university currently receives the largest amount of funding from the National Institutes of Health among all public universities in America without a medical school. The addition of a school of medicine will enhance research on human health and expedite the creation of new drugs, treatments and diagnostics that will add to the more than 1,100 products UGA research has already developed and sent to market.

Healthy future

The creation of a new, independent school of medicine at the University of Georgia will help address the rising healthcare challenges that face our state’s 11 million residents. It will also foster productive research collaborations whose benefits will extend far beyond the borders of Georgia. With a new medical school coming to UGA, the future prognosis for our state, nation and world is a healthy one.