Dreams of going to medical school in Auburn just became a reality.
Auburn University and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, or VCOM, officially broke ground on a brand new, state-of-the-art facility in the Auburn Research Park, which will provide an immersive education at a graduate level.
"We're looking to have our first class at Auburn in August of 2015," said Dr. Jim Wolfe, president of VCOM. "One of the things coming to Auburn that was attractive to us and attractive to Auburn is that in Blacksburg and over in Spartanburg we're both up to speed, and by doing the same thing and using the same kind of model as them, we can come up to speed pretty quickly [in Auburn]."
VCOM's Auburn campus will be the foundation's third medical school in the southeast, starting first at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., before moving to Spartanburg, S.C.
An institution in the field of osteopathic medicine, nonprofit VCOM has educated college graduates on diagnosing and treating a wide variety of medical problems for more than 25 years.
Auburn approached VCOM in 2012 with an offer to bring the nonprofit medical school foundation to southeastern Alabama.
"We had been interested in the possibility of a new medical school to address the national need and regional need for a long time," Wolfe said. "[We're] interested in establishing a medical school and providing more doctors for people who really do need physicians."
Sixty-one of Alabama's 67 counties were partially or completely short of primary care physicians, with the biggest disparity being in rural areas, according to the Rural Policy Research Institute's 2007 Community Information Resource Center.
The new 92,000 square foot facility will be part classroom and part hands-on training, said VCOM Media Relations Director Cindy Rawlins.
"There will be partnerships with different schools on campus due to the facilities we have," Rawlins said. "We're already getting ready to work on research projects in sports medicine, in the veterinary school and nursing school. We'll also have the Simulation Technology Center, which has simulated mannequins where people can learn to do procedures, from giving someone a shot to performing surgery."
In addition to providing a quality education on-site, VCOM students from Auburn will have the opportunity to partner with students from the Blacksburg and Spartanburg campuses to go on medical mission trips in Appalachia, Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
"We're very excited about them coming and getting their medical school underway because we see having a medical school here on Auburn's campus will attract other companies into the research park to help with our economic efforts," said Dr. John Weete, executive director of Auburn Research and Technology Foundation.
The school is already in discussion to bring companies and focus groups to the research park, but it's too early to discuss yet, Weete said.
"We're delighted, everybody has really been very gracious and helpful and we've tried to do the same for Auburn," Wolfe said. "It's a really terrific atmosphere, really a terrific place and I think it's going to be a really terrific partnership."
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