North Dakota will be short over 200 physicians by 2025—and the number may be as high as 300! Greater efforts at retention of our graduates should provide more than half of the providers that we’ll need. To fully meet the coming demand, we simply must expand the class size for medical students as well as health science students. Such a conclusion has been reached by over 80 percent of the medical schools in the country. The School’s Advisory Council, a legislatively mandated committee of 15 advisors, also came to the same conclusion after thoroughly studying the issue. Their 115-page report is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of health of North Dakota, and the state of health of our health care delivery system. It offers a peek into the future, and concludes that it is essential to expand the class size and to do so starting now. Based on this report, the School has developed a plan to expand the class size, which has received wide support. In order to implement the plan, we will need the financial support of the Legislature. The price tag is not trivial, and time will tell if and when the Legislature will authorize the needed funds. Until then, we will continue to do everything possible to help North Dakota develop the best health care delivery system and optimal workforce. Finally, exciting things are happening with our research enterprise. We recently completed an analysis of our research strengths and opportunities with the help of Kaludis Consulting, an academic medicine consulting firm. Based on their recommendations, we have adopted 10 guiding principles for our research programs that should lead to even greater research productivity and accomplishments. One of the more important conclusions is that we should
merge our basic science departments into one. This action will require approval by the State Board of Higher Education and, once implemented, will enhance our interdisciplinary research and education. Another important change is to directly couple basic research and clinical programs so discoveries in the research laboratory
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All of these ... efforts should result in more of our students choosing a primary care career and remaining in North Dakota to practice. can be applied in the clinical setting as rapidly as possible. How well we optimize such translational research will be an important benchmark of the success of our research enterprise. The potential growth in the size and scope of our research program is substantial, and we are excited about the abundant opportunities that should ensue from these activities. Our School has a well-deserved reputation for excellence as a community-based school, one that excels in education and dedication to our students. We can build on that solid foundation and help North Dakota prepare for the future. After all, the community that the School serves is all of North Dakota!
Joshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPH UND Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean
NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Spring 2011
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