Nearly 10 years in, Quinnipiac medical school looks to future with new five-year plan
Contributed
Quinnipiac University's Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine Dean Phillip Boiselle hands a stethoscope to Isaiah Holloway, one of the school's first-year students.
Quinnipiac University’s Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine will celebrate its 10th year with several on-campus events as it also looks ahead to the future with a new curriculum and other initiatives.
School of Medicine Dean Phillip Boiselle told the Hartford Business Journal that, to commemorate the anniversary, the school this fall will create a podcast of its history. In addition, Boiselle said, there will be a medical illustration symposium and art exhibit honoring the school’s namesake, Dr. Frank H. Netter, who was a surgeon and medical illustrator. Francine Netter, Netter’s daughter and biographer, will also be on hand to discuss her father’s legacy, Boiselle said.
Boiselle said medical school’s inaugural class had 60 students; now its first-year classes enroll 95 students. Its total enrollment has grown to around 380 students. Demand for the program is strong, Boiselle said, with the school receiving 8,000 applications in 2023.
As of the May 12, 2023 graduating class, more than 600 students will have graduated from the school, Boiselle said.
Boiselle said the School of Medicine is in the beginning stages of a five-year strategic plan that will focus on equity through expansion of its educational footprint, such as the new master’s of public health degree that will debut in 2024.
Boiselle, dean since July 2021 and the second dean in the school’s history, said that, in the short-term, “our major strategic growth plans are in graduate medical education.” He said the school is preparing to launch three new residency programs – in rural family medicine, rural psychiatry, and anesthesiology – in partnership with Hartford HealthCare.
“This is a highly impactful way to contribute to the physician workforce needs here in Connecticut, while simultaneously advancing excellence in medical education,” Boiselle said.
Other upcoming initiatives, Boiselle said, include building a 10-member community advisory board, which will debut in 2024. The board, Boiselle said, will be composed of community leaders and other individuals to enhance health equity initiatives.
Tuition to attend the medical school – which is housed in the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Quinnipiac’s North Haven campus – was $49,650 in 2013; today it stands at $62,230 annually.
Incoming students must have a bachelor’s degree and enroll for four years at the medical school to receive their medical doctor degree.
Boiselle said the school places a strong emphasis on clinical curriculum. Students in their first year, he said, will be assigned to a clinical site, usually an outpatient clinic, for “very early clinical exposure.”
The final two years of the program are more hospital-based, he said.
“It’s a very rigorous program,” Boiselle said. “The students learn by doing and they work with doctors in all major disciplines including surgery and pediatric.”
The school, Boiselle said, recruits students with an eye toward diversity, which includes people from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and genders.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments