Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. Press Briefing – Medical Expansion
January 15, 2008

Thank you for your presence today.

• This is an important moment for this State as we seek System-level responses to identified state needs.
• In early 2007, the Board of Regents began a process of evaluating how to best meet a critical need in Georgia – the lack of physicians.
• Let me give just a few numbers to back up the serious nature of this need:
  • Georgia has slipped from 37th to 40th in the number of physicians per capita in just the last two years.
  • With our expected population growth, if we don’t change our medical education system and don’t find ways to produce more doctors, Georgia will be last by 2020.
• This is despite the fact that the state’s only public medical school already has one of the largest class sizes in the country.
• It’s despite the fact that 54 percent of MCG’s medical graduates practice in Georgia.
• Nationally, only 39 percent of medical graduates practice in the state where they went to school.
• It’s also despite the fact that there are four other medical schools in Georgia.
• As the state’s public higher education system, we must to do more to address this critical issue.
• This is crucial to all of us in Georgia because:
  • The health and safety of Georgians are at risk;
  • Our medical needs are increasing – as I noted, population growth is outpacing our physician resources
  • The economy of the state is also at risk – would a company want to relocate employees to the state with the fewest number of doctors in the nation?
• Fortunately, we are not that state – and today we have a plan and a roadmap to ensure that we do not become that state.
• We have before us a plan that, if implemented, will assure that Georgia is a state that is healthy for both individuals and businesses.
• That plan utilizes the tremendous resources of numerous partners, numerous communities, and two great University System assets: the Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia.
• As a former business executive I fully understand that the health of a community is tied to the health of the economy.
• As we undertook this study, we were aware that the clock was ticking.
• Time is working against us.
• We must move quickly and in a focused way.
• One of the greatest contributions the Board of Regents can make to the state of Georgia is training health care professionals.
• We need to educate more nurses and we are.
• We need to educate more allied health professionals and we are.
• We need to educate more doctors but we continue to talk about it!
• Our work at the Board of Regents is only part of a coordinated statewide effort that will involve many others in healthcare, community development, economic development, as well as public health and safety.
• To discuss how we plan to address this important issue, I’m pleased to introduce the President of the Medical College of Georgia – and also the senior Vice Chancellor of the Board of Regents, the man who is in charge of public health science education for the state, Dr. Dan Rahn.
• Dr. Rahn …

End.