Breaking the Mold by Myra Hurt | Page 126

• The College of Medicine had an economic impact of more than $1 billion in Florida through 2010 despite coming of age during a difficult economic period. In the five years through 2015 the college generated an additional $826 million in statewide economic impact. • A unique, community-based approach to medical education – which puts medical students in the locations where the vast majority of patients receive health care – also distributes the college’s economic impact. For state taxpayers, the annual return on investment amounted to nearly 473 percent (through 2015), exclusively in terms of economic benefit – up from the estimated 410 percent in 2010. • At the same time, the College of Medicine is outperforming its state and national peers on most measures related to primary care, elder care and attention to the needs of medically underserved populations. Additionally, the college’s 2015 enrollment data showed it to be the most diverse medical school in the U.S., as the only institution in the top six nationally for enrollment of both black and Hispanic students. Diversity supports the likelihood of producing more physicians who will choose to practice in medically underserved communities in Florida. • 56 percent of College of Medicine graduates have pursued primary care specialties, compared with just 41 percent nationally. • 55 percent of College of Medicine alumni who have completed residency and/or fellowship training are in practice in Florida – a retention rate that is highest among the state’s medical schools and 30 percent greater than the national average. • Nearly a quarter of the alumni physicians in Florida are practicing in the Panhandle region, meeting critical needs for doctors in rural communities as intended…. • 56 percent of the alumni practicing in Florida are in primary care specialties. That percentage jumps to 72 when looking at the physicians in Panhandle communities. • The college’s research program grew its grant funding by more than 700 percent between inception (2002) and 2010. Eighty-eight percent of the funding is from federal or private sources and approximately 80 percent of each grant goes toward personnel costs. That means job creation. In Tallahassee alone, the College of Medicine created more than 600 jobs over a 10-year period, including faculty, research and support staff positions. The college’s research award dollars increased by an additional 128 percent … through 2015. • The report also noted that the college has affiliation agreements statewide with more than 100 hospitals, county health departments, clinics, surgery centers and similar organizations; has received strong support from all the communities where its programs train students; has opened four new graduate medical education programs; and is on track to accept the first students in its new physician assistant program in August. 124 | Breaking the Mold