Morgan State University in Baltimore is the proposed home of a new medical school, marking the first time in 45 years that a medical school will open at a historically Black college or university.
According to CBS News, the HBCU is teaming up with Ascension St. Agnes Hospital to launch a for-profit, private medical school to provide more opportunities to underserved students.
“Let’s do this for Baltimore, let’s do this for our community,” Dr. John Sealey, Founding Dean of the proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine at MSU, told the news outlet.
The school, which is set to open in 2024, will have 700 students and 150 employees. According to Jon D’Souza, Chief Medical Officer at Ascension St. Agnes, the potential school will help increase the number of physicians and benefit the community.
“There’s a shortage in the next 10 years, anywhere between 35,000 and 120,000 physicians in the United States of America,” D’Souza said. “We want to make sure we’re doing our part in training that next generation, and we also want to make sure that the physicians we’re training are coming from the community they’re going to serve,” he added.
As a community hospital, Ascension St. Agnes said future students would get training that can’t be found everywhere.
“It’s going to have a strong emphasis on population health. That means we don’t just fix a problem when it becomes a medical issue; we work within communities to prevent problems,” said D’Souza.
The proposed school’s announcement comes during HBCU Awareness Month. Maryland is home to four. In addition to Morgan State, there is Coppin State University, Bowie State, as well as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.