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The future for medical professionals

Published (3/4/2011)
By Mike Cook
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Minnesota could be facing a health care crisis in the coming years as its residents age, including those who provide the treatment.

That is why officials from the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota reiterated to the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee March 1 the importance of minimizing any budget reductions the center may face. Approximately 15 percent of the center’s revenue comes from state support. The committee took no action.

“There are critical shortages in this state in primary care physicians,” said Dr. Aaron Friedman, vice president of health sciences and dean of the medical school. “We have a responsibility, and we feel strongly we should be helping in this regard.” He said shortages also exist in psychiatry, surgery, orthopedics, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and large-animal veterinary medicine.

“In the past year alone we had an $18 million cut,” Friedman said. “Each dollar of state support into the health sciences leverages close to $9 in revenue from both public and private grants and for taking care of patients.”

The center trains 70 percent of the state’s health professionals; is the state’s only veterinary medicine school; provides 460,000 patient clinic visits annually while students learn beside a professional; and performs more than $425 million of privately and publicly funded research.

Dr. Daniel Garry, director of the university’s Lillehei Heart Institute, held a pacemaker attached to a human heart, while explaining how the first successful open-heart surgery was performed at the university nearly 60 years ago.

“Just like in 1952 when the University of Minnesota rocked the world, and made a profound impact in the treatment of heart disease, we, too, want to impact the treatment of our family members, our neighbors and our community members.”

Raising tuition is not much of an option because the university already ranks near the top nationwide. “If we’re going to continue to train our students and work across Greater Minnesota, we may not be able to be in certain places. We may not be able to go to certain clinics,” Friedman said. “The rural physicians program ... is not required by our accreditation bodies. It’s the right thing for us to do in Minnesota. That’s the kind of thing we have to look at to accommodate

15 or 20 percent reductions.”

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