A Terrific Start for Our New Med School

University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville’s inaugural class completed its first year on May 16! What a milestone for the 136th medical school in North America! Upon reflection, I am filled with appreciation. 

To begin, thanks to the Boards of Trustees of the University of South Carolina and Greenville Health System, who recognized the need to educate more physicians prepared to practice in the 21^st century and elected to stand against significant opposition to create the opportunity. Linked with them are their selected leaders: USC President Harris Pastides and Greenville Health System President Michael Riordan, two men who conceived the vision and held fast to it even during challenging times when they could have understandably turned their attention to other high priority matters. Also foundational to this accomplishment are the many previous Boards and leaders of both systems who built the programs that provided the platform for this accomplishment.

Next, my incredible gratitude to the deans who accepted responsibility to lead this start-up school and have done so in an exemplary fashion. Spence Taylor, MD, led us through the accreditation process to allow us to recruit our inaugural class; Lynn Crespo, PhD, continues to provide unwavering leadership for development of a modern and innovative curriculum in what is now her third new medical school; Robert Best, PhD, has bridged the cultures of the university and the health care delivery system to establish policies and procedures for faculty affairs and HR; James Buggy, PhD, has developed a terrific student affairs office, a staff that is totally dedicated to the students, and first rate communication vehicles like this blog; and Paul Catalana, MD, has now led the admissions process for two years through marked growth in the size and quality of our applicant pool.

Then there is our growing Biomedical Sciences faculty and staff who have worked incredibly hard preparing, delivering, and revising our integrated, modular, case-based curriculum which provides early and progressive clinical exposure beginning with EMT training. This approach brings active physician clinicians into the classroom from day one as part of the teaching team with our PhD faculty (please meet them on our web site). Hats off to Biomedical Sciences Department Chair, Brian Tobin, PhD, who continues to recruit and is leading an incredible group of core faculty. Dr. Tobin’s prior experience in new generation medical schools has proved invaluable. All of this together has developed some of the most precocious medical students that I have ever encountered. How many first-year medical students can provide licensed first responder care, have actively seen real patients in the clinic and hospital setting, and have demonstrated through standardized patient OSCEs the ability to take a complete medical history and perform a targeted physical examination? According to our students and faculty, of equal import is that these early clinical experiences have reinforced their resolve to study hard in medical school and have provided a basis for better understanding of the relevance of their modular biomedical sciences course materials.

And then there are the unparalleled facilities! What’s not to like about a 96,000-square-foot building with state-of-the art technology including 80 flat screens, write surfaces everywhere, natural light throughout, a 21st century anatomy lab, and a 30,000-square-foot regional simulation center with standardized patient exam rooms on one side and mannequin based simulation on the other—all able to facilitate inter-professional education? Now place it on the tertiary care campus of Greenville Health System, the 13th largest public hospital system in America. And place it in Greenville, South Carolina—one of the most vibrant and beautiful towns in America, voted so by multiple surveys and one of the most supportive communities I can imagine for USC School of Medicine Greenville.

Finally, there are our students. What an extraordinary group of young men and women who have approached this endeavor as a partnership between themselves, the faculty, and the administration. To experience their respectful and caring manner, their enthusiastic commitment, and their mutually supportive camaraderie has been a true privilege. I look forward to their return from summer break so that I can witness their leadership mentoring the incoming highly talented group comprising the class of 2017.

It has been a terrific start. Feel free to follow the lead of many others around the state and country—come see us.

Dean Jerry Youkey