An $80 million long-term investment in North St. Louis from Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU) aims to prepare physicians to work in underserved communities and address chronic healthcare disparities in St Louis and around the country.
Representatives announced its new medical school will open in North St. Louis in a press conference on Tuesday.
“The main goal of this new institution is to concentrate on cultural diversity in healthcare and how we get more students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds into the healthcare workforce and medicine because I believe if we can do that, then those students will go back into the communities of need and practice,” PSHU President Dr. David Lenihan said.
Those shortages are exacerbated amongst physicians of color, where the diversity of the medical community – only 5.8% of physicians identified as Hispanic and 5% of physicians as Black or African American in 2018 — seriously fails to represent the growing diversity in the U.S.
The impacts of physician shortages have been felt around the country and the world, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortages of over 55,000 primary care physicians and 86,000 non-primary care specialties, including surgical, pathology, radiology, psychiatry, and others, are predicted by 2033, if the training of physicians is not addressed, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Dr. Alison Whelan, AAMC Chief Academic Officer, said, “In our new strategic plan, the AAMC is committed to working with our medical schools and the entire health professional community to increase the number of Black and Hispanic/LatinX physicians, in particular Black men in medicine.”
Those shortages are only exacerbated amongst physicians of color where the diversity of the medical community – only 5.8% of physicians identified as Hispanic and 5% of physicians as Black or African American in 2018 — seriously fails to represent the growing diversity in the U.S.
“We believe there are a number of things that contribute to this disparity,” Whelan said. “It begins with the pathways for medical school, so students can recognize before college that this is a possible pathway for them by having opportunities to learn about it, meet physicians of color and to understand that this is something they can do.”
“It’s about socioeconomic situations,” Lenihan said.
“Rural Missouri is just as poor as some of the communities around the St. Louis area, so how do we get doctors into both of those? It’s a thought process of having to take students from those areas because they are the ones that are likely to go back.”
He went on to say that people who look at the project want instant gratification, but they should look at the future implications that the medical school will have on the community.
“These things take a long time,” he said.
“It’s taken us 10 years to get this far, but it’s going to ramp up fast,” PHSU President Dr. David Lenihan said.
“Everyone, including politicians and the community, wants something done tomorrow, however, if you can think ahead 20 years to when a hospital, community center and medical school are there, you can see the long-lasting impact.
“It’s taken us 10 years to get this far, but it’s going to ramp up fast.”
Ponce Health Sciences University, a private, for-profit institution, currently has two medical programs: one in Puerto Rico and another in Saint Louis, based out of the Globe Building downtown.
The campus in Puerto Rico is currently under construction. Once the Puerto Rico campus is complete within the next couple years, they will begin construction on the new campus in North Saint Louis.
The site of the campus is the former Pruitt Igoe complex, across from the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA) development near Jefferson Street and Cass Street.
The medical program will consist of two years of basic medical undergraduate courses, followed by two years of further study featuring clinicals and more graduate school level programs, like other medical schools in the country. From there, graduates will go on to residency placements.
PHSU and Mercy have partnered to provide more resources and accommodations for future medical students.
Mercy Hospital St. Louis Chief Medical Officer Dr. Phineas Oren said medical students will be able to start their clinical rotations at the healthcare provider.
“We have a lot of smaller, more rural hospitals and I think Ponce is trying to create medical students that will go back and serve the rural and underserved communities that many students come from,” Oren said.
“It’s not just limited to St. Louis County, but I think we would like to see students branch out, especially to smaller hospitals over time.”
PHSU’s partnership with Mercy will provide medical students with the necessary skills they will need to create a more diverse medical workforce.
“It’s going to take a few years to see the effects, but I think this is going to plant the seeds to create a workforce that reflects the population; it is a great way to build trust,” Oren said.
The expanded PHSU St. Louis program offerings will connect MD graduates from diverse backgrounds with programs including radiology, orthopedics, dermatology, and ophthalmology.
Thirty students will start at the St. Louis campus in its first year. Olivia Mackey will be one of them.
“I was born in St. Louis, so it was important to me that they planned to build a campus on the northside of St. Louis,” Mackay said.
“I think it is important for us as future health care professionals are able to bridge the gap between health disparities and promote diversity and inclusion because in the schools we currently have in St. Louis, there is not a lot of people who look like me that are minorities, but PHSU does a great job of promoting diversity so I’m proud to be apart of this first class.”
Mackey aspires to become a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and believes this new institution will prepare her for her career.
There will be an estimated total of 600 students in Saint Louis and 600 in Puerto Rico within the next four years.
