ULL, LSU may partner in 3-year MD program

Published Dec 2, 2011 at 10:13 am (Updated Dec 2, 2011)

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette may soon partner with the state's flagship university to create a medical school program that will allow students to complete an MD program in three years. Carolyn Bruder, UL's interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, tells The Daily Advertiser the new partnership would be an expansion of a current program allowing LSU med students to complete the first two years of medical school in New Orleans before going to Lafayette to spend two years doing clinical work at University Medical Center. Bruder says the program's expansion would admit 40 students each year to a three-year "compressed" MD program focused on primary care, rather than the traditional four-year programs in which students also learn a specialty. "The three-year compressed program addresses two needs," Bruder says. "First, it addresses the primary physician needs in Louisiana; and secondly, it addresses the exorbitant debt that students are graduating from med school with. It seems like a win-win for everybody involved." Bruder says officials began discussing the partnership's expansion in February of 2010, and they're still having discussions to finalize details. LSU officials are calling reports of the partnership "very premature." Read the full article here.