As you may know, in order to become a physician you have to graduate from medical school and then go on to complete a several year residency in your desired field (family medicine, emergency medicine, orthopedic surgery, etc), after which point you can take your board exams and be a fully-licensed, board-certified physician.

In order for a new medical school to come into existence, interested parties must show that they have the facilities, staff and an unmet need for medical care in their area. FAU's medical school came about as part of a nationwide concern that the baby boomers are aging and there won't be enough doctors to take care of them, essentially the same argument that FSU, UCF, and FIU made to get their medical schools.

Part of the agreement is also that the new medical school will work to open up new residency programs because otherwise we have more graduates than spots for them to go.

FAU's College of Medicine started its post-graduate medical education offerings with an Internal Medicine residency at Bethesda Memorial Hospital, now split between Bethesda and Boca Regional with some rotations at Delray Medical Center - that is to say, if you or a family member end up in the ER, ICU or on the general medical floors, your doctor may have FAU on their jacket. This is a good thing because it means you will be double-vetted by a resident and attending, and your care may possibly be discussed by an entire team of physicians to figure out the best solution for you. This is the advantage of a teaching hospital vs a regular hospital.

FAU recently added program for General Surgery and Emergency Medicine, which IIRC will have their inaugural class this July.

Just noticed that FAU has also posted job openings for program coordinators for psychiatry and neurology residencies on their job site, so that's two more in the pipeline. That said, the coordinator will have to work with the Director of Medical Education to ensure that a residency program in that field could be created and maintained through the FAU Medicine system so it's not a done deal until they get ACGME approval and have actual residents in the program. Still, it's exciting to see FAU grow so fast. They actually have pretty big plans for this place and have hired some really impressive guys.

I believe the plan is to eventually add OB/GYN and pediatrics as well but so far that's just a rumor. The most desired residencies in medicine are high-paying fields like orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology and dermatology. Of those four I'd expect for FAU to head for dermatology first because of the number of elderly patients and migrant workers with skin cancers, though you could make a strong argument for all those broken hips in the elderly needing orthopedic surgeons as well. Haven't heard anything about that though.

Beyond that they are also looking at adding fellowships in things like cardiology and I believe geriatrics. Fellowships are additional training you undertake to subspecialize after residency. However, I'm not sure when those will come online, though at the rate we're going I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the next 2-5 years.

Here's the press release announcing the addition of a psychiatry residency program.

"This new program brings a total of four residency programs to FAU: internal medicine (launched in 2014); general surgery (launched in 2016); emergency medicine (launches this July); and psychiatry (launches in 2018).

The four-year psychiatry residency program is based at Tenet HealthCare system’s Delray Medical Center, the primary site for the program, South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach and Boca Raton Regional Hospital. The program has been approved for 16 positions and will participate in the National Resident Matching Program to welcome its inaugural class on July 1, 2018."

Psychiatry is a 4-year residency program, by the way, so those 16 positions should actually be 4 residents taken into the program every year. From there don't be surprised if they try to launch an addiction medicine fellowship, as Delray would be a great area to learn about opioid addiction.

As an aside since it's the primary site, Delray Medical Center will open a brand new wing of their hospital in July which appears to double the size of the hospital. You can read more about that HERE if you're interested (includes a rendering).

FAU needs it's own teaching Hospital

owlcountry40 said

FAU needs it's own teaching Hospital

Posted On: May 10th 2017, 2:01 PM #368668

No that would be incorrect.

FAU almost had one on campus.

Illinois I was testing the post rating to see how it works on mobile. Was not actually rating it a 1!

owlcountry40 said

FAU needs it's own teaching Hospital

Posted On: May 10th 2017, 2:01 PM #368668

FAU has residents and medical students at a number of local hospitals, though Boca Regional and Bethesda are the base sites; Delray for some rotations, now the base site for psych. I believe surgery's main site is at JFK.

I thought the same as you for a long time but the old plan to essentially move Boca Regional onto campus as the Schmidt Medical Center had literal costs that far outweighed its upsides of new facilities and bragging rights. If the closest hospital was, say, Boca West, you might have been able to make a stronger argument for the hospital on-campus... but since it's right across the street, that's a harder argument to make, and I'm a little surprised they made it in the first place though I admire the ambition.

As an aside I interviewed for a residency position at Boca Regional. Their pitch was very good. They were a mess the first year or so but they've altered the curriculum, put more resources behind the training and hired some notable people. They claim there is a lot of money flowing into that hospital so it should continue to grow in the future in-hand with FAU. In conjunction with the medical research buildings we aspire to build and the new residencies I believe the program will take off and "FAU Health" will eventually become a thing the way "UM Health" or "seeing a UM doctor" is a thing now.

As far as campus I do think a dedicated health center of some kind for students, or maybe an urgent care, will pop-up, but nothing on the scale of a hospital.

FAU approved for Cardiology fellowship

This is great for the program. Growing at an impressive rate. It's also a pretty competitive fellowship so the graduates should reflect positively on FAU.

Very nice!