ORONO, Maine — The state of Maine could be one step closer to establishing its first allopathic medical school that would grant an M.D., or Doctor of Medicine, degree.
On Tuesday, the Maine Legislature approved funding for a feasibility study to research whether the University of Maine could support the institution in Penobscot County.
UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said that while this is only a preliminary step, the university's academic prowess could play an important role in building a medical school.
"An environment in which we're very concerned with the preparation of health care providers benefits greatly from the research that goes on in an institution, and we have very strong research in biomedicine," Ferrini-Mundy said Wednesday.
Though few details are known and the feasibility study is not yet underway, we do know the medical school would be located in Penobscot County. That condition was set by Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Penobscot, who sponsored the bill passed this week.
"Having a medical school [here] will help our children, our grandchildren … Will help the future of northern Maine and eastern Maine," Baldacci said. "It will help the future of our community."
For clinical education, a medical school at the University of Maine would likely partner with Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. That’s Dr. James Jarvis' goal, the director of clinical education at the hospital. Jarvis believes an M.D. program in Penobscot County could have far-reaching effects on the current shortage of rural physicians.
"There are Mainers in our more rural communities who really haven't had access to both health care and the experience of being part of the education of health care, and so having the school in Penobscot County may help to expand that," Jarvis said.
But the plan for a new medical school faces resistance.
The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford grants D.O. degrees, which are similar to an M.D. degree.
Dr. Jane Carreira, the school’s dean, is against the plan. She says the problem Maine faces is a lack of residency programs—not a shortage of graduates.
"Bringing more medical students into the pipeline without addressing the problem of third-year clerkships and residencies just means we're gonna send more students out of the state," Carreira said.
But Sen. Baldacci disagrees.
"This is not either or. We’re trying to work on many tracks to help people get health care … We’re trying to expand health care," Balducci said Wednesday.
The feasibility study likely won’t come out for a couple of years. Jarvis said it could be close to a decade before the first class of M.D. students are enrolled.