In February, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents authorized the University of Georgia to establish a new independent School of Medicine. In the time since, the university has hit many important milestones toward the establishment of this critical new school.
In June, Flad Architects was named as the design firm for the new medical education and research building that will be constructed on UGA’s Health Sciences Campus.
The proposed structure will measure approximately 92,000 square feet and will include research laboratories, medical simulation suites, standardized patient rooms, clinical skills labs, an anatomy lab and a medical library.
Programming and planning meetings with faculty and staff are well underway, and early proposals for the building’s design are being developed. Once finalized and approved, it will be built by Turner Construction.
Following the recommendation from Gov. Brian Kemp, the Georgia General Assembly passed a fiscal year 2024 amended budget that includes $50 million in funding for a new UGA School of Medicine facility. That state funding will be matched by private contributions to fund the $100 million structure.
Donors to the SOM have now committed more than $12 million in only five months to help support the construction of the new medical education and research building. Coupled with support from the UGA Foundation and UGA Research Foundation, UGA has already secured over $37 million in commitments for the necessary matching funds, as well as donations for student scholarships.
Dr. Shelley Nuss, who was named founding dean of the UGA School of Medicine in March, is leading the preparation of materials required to seek accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, or LCME. This entails development of an extensive description of all aspects of the UGA SOM’s operations, from bylaws and faculty governance to admissions, curriculum and assessment, as well as development of the school’s mission, vision and strategic plan.
Over the course of the summer, Dr. Nuss and team have also secured several hospital affiliation agreements for placement of future UGA medical students and hired some key administrators and faculty.
“Our leadership team and faculty have worked tirelessly since the spring, and we have made significant progress,” said Nuss. “The faculty are now engaged in a self-study process to review our draft application and ensure that we satisfy the 12 LCME standards and 91 sub-elements required for preliminary accreditation. Our goal is to submit the final report before Thanksgiving.”
Dr. Nuss is a professor of internal medicine and psychiatry in the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, which has been educating physicians in Athens since 2010.
“The fact is, Georgia needs more doctors, and we need them now,” said Nuss at the groundbreaking ceremony held in April for the new medical education and research facility. “The new UGA School of Medicine will increase the number of medical students in the state, translating to more practicing physicians to help address Georgia’s greatest health care challenges.”
The development of a new public school of medicine at UGA promises to help address a significant shortage of medical professionals. Georgia’s growing population tops approximately 11 million residents, straining the state’s existing medical infrastructure.
Now the nation’s eighth largest state, Georgia is forecasted to experience further population growth in the coming years, as nearly one-third of the state’s physicians are nearing retirement.
Georgia currently ranks No. 40 among U.S. states for the number of active patient care physicians per capita, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), while it ranks No. 41 for the number of primary care physicians and No. 44 for the number of general surgeons per capita. The shortage of medical providers is particularly acute in rural and underserved areas, where access is even more limited.
The creation of the UGA School of Medicine marks the natural evolution of the longest-serving medical education partnership in the United States. Many similar programs founded around the same time have already transitioned to independent medical schools.
UGA will continue to work closely with the Medical College of Georgia to ensure a smooth transition for current medical students.
The creation of a school of medicine at the university will also serve to enhance human health and disease research already taking place across campus. In the last decade, UGA’s research expenditures have grown more than 63%, reaching $570.9 million in FY2023.
Driving these gains have been increases by several federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, which funds a significant portion of America’s biomedical research. UGA receives the largest amount of NIH funding among all of Georgia’s public research universities and is the largest recipient of NIH funding among American public universities without a medical school.
Faculty in several colleges and schools on campus already engage in research on Parkinson’s, COVID-19, malaria and other conditions such as stroke. Their discoveries have led to new treatments and vaccines that are among the 1,100 products developed by UGA research to date.
