To help address Florida’s growing shortage of doctors a study commissioned by the University of Central Florida shows there is a need for at least two new medical schools in the state.  UCF President John Hitt says Orlando is an ideal location for one of those schools.

“We think the study shows it’s a good idea, so we’re going to move forward with a proposal,” Hitt recently said to the state Board of Governors.

There is a critical shortage of physicians in Florida that will continue to worsen. Experts say the shortage limits access, increases costs and hurts the quality of health care in Florida.

Orlando, the largest metropolitan area in the country without a medical school, is home to two of the largest medical systems in the country -- Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Healthcare. Area health care administrators have endorsed building a medical school in Orlando.

UCF has put in place a strong foundation for a medical school, Hitt said. Among Florida’s 11 state universities, UCF is the second-largest producer of bachelor’s degrees and the fourth-largest producer of medical school preparatory degrees. UCF also had the third-highest number of research contracts and grants between 1994 and 2003, and the university is the third-highest producer of patents.

A $10 million donation last year created the Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences, which could be the base for a medical college at UCF.

The university already has many medically related research centers and programs, including the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers, the Institute for Simulation and Training, the Nanoscience and Technology Center, the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center and Micro-Electrical Mechanical Engineering.

Related areas of research at UCF include simulated human patients and virtual endoscopic surgery devices for training medical professionals; nanoscience and drug delivery; mechanized microsurgery; cancer and quality of life for breast cancer survivors; and cardiovascular, infectious and neurodegenerative diseases.

Florida International University hopes to build a medical school at its campus in Miami. The University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University, both private schools, already have medical colleges at their South Florida campuses. University of Florida, the University of South Florida in Tampa and Florida State University in Tallahassee also have medical schools.

By Tom Eveyln of UCF