Keeping the community healthy has taken on new meaning since early 2020 , when a pandemic created daunting stressors on the people at the frontlines of our health-care system . The Florida State University College of Medicine was created in 2000 at a time when prescient planners of a new four-year program in Tallahassee were way ahead of the Association of American Medical Colleges and American Medical Association in predicting physician shortages .
The College of Medicine came about , in part , to produce more primary-care physicians and has been successful at doing
so through 18 graduating classes .
The needs have never been greater .
FSU ’ s medical school was the first to open in the U . S . in two decades . The AAMC and AMA were forced to look anew at the physician workforce after telling FSU there were more than enough doctors in this country . In 2006 , an about-face led to a call from the AAMC for a 30 % INCREASE in medical school enrollment .
Enrollment reached that goal , expanding from 16,488 medical students in 2002 ( when FSU ’ s inaugural class was completing its first year ) to 21,622 students in 2018-19 . Twenty-nine new accredited medical schools opened during that time , along with 17 news schools of osteopathic medicine .
Combined , the new schools and additional enrollment at existing programs increased enrollment by 52 %. Yet the AAMC states there will be a shortage of 122,000 physicians by 2032 , including up to 55,000 primary-care physicians .
As the numbers on these pages attest , the FSU College of Medicine has been a leader in producing not just a greater concentration of primary-care physicians , but physicians in other specialties where the needs are greatest .
500 / 1,000 | Florida State University College of Medicine | 2022 Annual Report | Alumni 13