technology-rich environment, and address primary care health needs of Florida’s
citizens, especially the elderly, rural, minorities, and underserved. The challenges
faced during the creation of the new school, including accreditation and a leadership
change, as well as accomplishments are described here. The new school
admits a diverse student body made possible through its extensive outreach programs,
fosters a humane learning environment through creation of student learning
communities, has a distributed clinical training model—with clinical campuses
in Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota and Tallahassee, and with 70% of training
occurring in ambulatory settings—and utilizes 21st-century information technology.
The curriculum focuses on patient-centered clinical training, using the
biopsychosocial model of patient care throughout the entire medical curriculum,
promotes primary care and geriatrics medicine through longitudinal community
experiences, relies on a hybrid curriculum for delivery of the first two years of
medical education with half of class sessions occurring in small groups and on
a continuum of clinical skills development throughout the first three years, and
uses an interdisciplinary departmental model for faculty, which greatly facilitates
delivery of an integrated curriculum. The first class was admitted in 2001
and graduated in May 2005. In February 2005, the FSU College of Medicine
received full accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
In June 2000, the governor of Florida signed into law a piece of legislation
establishing the first new allopathic medical school in the United States in over
two decades. The legislation was very prescriptive, mandating that in establishing
the new school, the Florida State University (FSU), should build on the university’s
historical role in medical education and should adhere to the best practices
set forth in legislatively mandated studies. The university was directed to establish
a new educational model using community-based clinical training for the
education of medical students. In this article, we provide a context for the legislature’s
decision to establish a new medical school based on physician workforce
needs for the state, review the university’s longstanding role in undergraduate
medical education, describe the key features of the new school’s educational program,
and summarize the challenges and accomplishments to date.
FLORIDA’S UNIQUE HEALTH CARE NEEDS
In the 1990s, while others in the United States talked about a physician glut
and Florida’s Board of Regents decreed that Florida had enough physicians, the
leadership at FSU began to actively study the issue of physician supply and needs
in the health care workforce. They found a compelling set of facts regarding
Florida’s health care needs. Florida is a rapidly changing state, especially regarding
its population growth, which picked up speed dramatically in the last half
of the 20th century. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of
Florida was 2,771,305 in 1950. The size of the population doubled by 1960 and
108 | Breaking the Mold