The prognosis is positive at the Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita.

In 2011, the Wichita campus expanded from a two-year to a four-year university for the purpose of attracting more medical students. For the past 35 years, the Wichita branch served only students in their third and fourth years of medical education. The first group of four-year, Wichita-based medical students began their studies on the campus in fall 2011.

Classrooms and offices to accommodate the expansion are being utilized in existing buildings and there are no immediate plans for construction of additional buildings. 

Need Doctors, STAT!

KU-Wichita officials say a key reason for the expansion is to help alleviate the shortage of physicians that the state of Kansas currently faces. Statistics show that of the 105 counties in Kansas, 90 need more doctors, with the numbers expected to grow as Kansas physicians, about a third of whom are 56 or older, begin to retire.

“We will be producing more doctors who will practice in Kansas and hopefully many of them will consider practicing in small-town Kansas where the need is most desperate,” says H. David Wilson, KU School of Medicine-Wichita dean.

The KU School of Medicine-Wichita also announced in 2011 that a new pharmacy program is being added to the campus curriculum.

The medical-school expansion and the addition of the pharmacy program in Wichita are expected to generate an annual regional economic impact estimated at more than $50 million.