Central Florida gets its first osteopathic medical school
WINTER GARDEN – Central Florida now has its first osteopathic medical school, thanks to billionaire philanthropist Dr. Kiran C. Patel.
The Tampa-based cardiologist spent about $200 million on the project, including more than $75 million to construct the three-story, 144,000-square-foot facility over 18 months. The Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine will teach students all the same skills as a traditional medical school with an added focus on holistic health and disease prevention.
“We can bridge the gap in health care disparities and ensure that all individuals regardless of their location, race, age, or creed will have access to medical care,” Patel said at the school’s opening ceremony on March 10. “The opening of this medical institution is my family’s contribution to advancing health care and building a bright future for all.”
The school’s inaugural class of nearly 100 students starts this August, with room for class sizes of more than double that amount in future years. It’s Florida’s 11th medical school and Orlando’s second medical school, following The University of Central Florida College of Medicine that debuted in 2006.
“We’ve been an importer of physicians for a long time here in the state of Florida, and so to be able to grow our own is going to be great,” said the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine’s founding dean Dr. Robert T. Hasty.
The bright, modern building sits on a 25-acre campus still under construction in Winter Garden’s Horizon West neighborhood.
It’s right off the highway, close enough to Disney World to see nightly fireworks from the top floor. The building includes two 200-person lecture halls, an anatomy lab, a simulation lab, a library, study rooms, a fitness room, a student lounge. It also has a manipulative medicine lab, which teaches the practice of moving and applying pressure to a patient’s muscles and joints to diagnose and heal them.
It also features small touches including desks with a dry-erase board surface in the anatomy lab and a changing area for actors who will simulate patients in a mock waiting room.
This school is intended to help address a growing physician shortage throughout the state and region.
“We actually have an incredible physician shortage nationally, but it’s even more so here in Florida, especially Central Florida,” Hasty said.
A 2021 report commissioned by the Florida Hospital Association and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida found that while Central Florida didn’t have a physician shortage in 2019, the region could have a physician shortfall of more than 1,900 providers in 2035 due to a rapidly growing and aging population.
Legislators recently passed a $700 million package of bills called Live Healthy to address the report’s predicted statewide shortage of 17,924 physicians in Florida by 2035.
Beyond strengthening the region’s health care workforce, this medical school will be a “game changer” for the whole community, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said during a speech at the school’s opening ceremony.
“It’s higher education institutions like this that are preparing talent to support innovation, contribute to high-paying jobs and help diversify our economy,” Demings said.
Demings cited an economic impact study by consulting firm Tripp Umbach that found by 2045, the medical school would add a total of $1.7 billion to the Orlando region’s economy, support over 9,000 jobs and contribute more than $86 million in taxes to state and local governments.
Demings also said that earlier in March, the county commission approved a partnership between the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Orange County Health Services Department and the Florida Department of Health in Orange County for the school’s experiential learning program, which gives students hands-on clinical experience.
Major hospital systems, including AdventHealth and Orlando Health, have agreed to take on students for clinical rotations in various specialties. The medical school also is partnering with schools like AdventHealth University to give pre-med undergraduate students and alumni majoring in Health Sciences or Biomedical Sciences a guaranteed admissions interview to the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Tuition and fees are $64,256 per year, according to the school’s website, which estimates total expenses including tuition, housing and food to be $105,336 this year.
The school has been granted pre-accreditation status by the American Osteopathic Association Commission. New colleges of osteopathic medicine hold provisional accreditation status during their first four years of enrollment.
