FIU College of Medicine: a recession-resistant economic engine for Florida in the 21st Century


MIAMI (March 17, 2009) – The new College of Medicine at Florida International University will generate 66,000 new jobs and have an annual economic impact of more than $8.9 billion within 16 years, reveal estimates released today.

The College of Medicine, a central piece of a new Academic Health Sciences Center at FIU, promises to transform healthcare and the local economy, according to an economic impact study conducted by Tripp Umbach, the nation’s leader in economic impact analysis for academic medical centers. The College, which will welcome its first class in August 2009, already has an annual economic impact of more than $100 million in South Florida and has created approximately 200 new jobs, most of which are high-paying professional positions.

“This medical school is the kind of long term, sustainable economic engine South Florida needs at a time when jobs are disappearing daily,” said FIU President Modesto A. Maidique, who underscored that Miami is now one of a select group of cities in the nation with more than one medical school. “FIU’s Academic Health Sciences Center is an economic stimulus package on its own.”

The College of Medicine will form part of an Academic Health Sciences Center at FIU that will include the Florida Department of Health, an ambulatory care center, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and other health-related programs. In addition to creating jobs directly and indirectly through clinical practice, teaching, research and the support of all those activities, the College of Medicine will continue to make increasingly larger economic contributions by:

  • Contributing to healthcare cost savings through community health improvement initiatives
  • Increasing local and state tax revenues
  • Generating growth in the biomedical industry

“Academic health sciences centers are powerful economic forces everywhere. However, we find that the FIU College of Medicine is unique in that it is more focused on healthcare cost savings than any other school in the country,” said Paul Umbach, founder and president of Tripp Umbach. “The economic contributions of this enterprise will be far-reaching, and will include savings to taxpayers and employers in the form of reduced healthcare premiums.”

NeighborhoodHelpTM
The healthcare cost savings will come largely from the college’s innovative NeighborhoodHelpTM program, through which medical students will work with colleagues in nursing, public health, business, law and other disciplines, to help struggling families in some of South Florida’s poorest neighborhoods. According to the study, that increased access to education, preventive care and research will save Florida taxpayers hundreds of millions in healthcare costs by 2020.

“NeighborhoodHelp is an innovative program that we believe one day will be adopted throughout Florida and the nation,” said College of Medicine Founding Dean John Rock. “We are revolutionizing medicine and in the process creating a significant economic benefit.”

For example, educating women about the benefits of folic acid could result in the prevention of spina bifida cases. One fewer case of spina bifida represents a savings of more than $1 million in lifelong healthcare spending. If NeighborhoodHelpTM were replicated throughout the state, it could reduce healthcare costs by 2 percent, which represents $1.86 billion in annual savings for the State of Florida. NeighborhoodHelpTM is in the planning stages and will be operational by 2011.

Increased business, tax base
The economic activity generated by the College will result in additional tax dollars in the state coffers. In fact, the new Academic Health Sciences Center will return nearly $12 to the state in direct and indirect tax revenue for every $1 invested by the state in the ongoing operations of the FIU College of Medicine.

A major component in the total economic impact of the FIU Academic Health Sciences Center will be as a result of growth in South Florida’s bioscience industry.  The study estimates that the concentration of talent and the research these faculty members will conduct will result in an expansion of the bioscience industry in South Florida by more than $5.7 billion annually by 2025.

“We need this Academic Health Sciences Center now more than ever. It means job creation and improved healthcare,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez. “The health, quality of life and economic rewards will become evident as FIU’s doctors and students fan out into our neediest neighborhoods to educate residents and save lives.

The College of Medicine will be located in the northeast corner of FIU-University Park in west Miami-Dade, across the street from the City of Sweetwater, which stands to benefit directly from the new economic activity.

“Soon, we will have state-of-the-art medical facilities and world-renowned doctors right at our doorstep,” said Sweetwater Mayor Manuel M. Maroño. “We are ground zero for the biomedical renaissance that FIU will usher in and this city will do everything possible to help it happen and reap the benefits.”

Media Contact: Maydel Santana-Bravo, 305-348-1555

About the FIU College of Medicine:
The College of Medicine was approved in 2006 by the Florida Board of Governors and the Florida Legislature.  In 2008, it received preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education of the AAMC and will admit its first class in the fall of 2009. Among the innovative elements of the FIU College of Medicine is a program called NeighborhoodHELP, which will send medical students along with their counterparts in social work, nursing and public health, into the community from the onset of their academic programs. The FIU College of Medicine is expected to have a multi-billion-dollar economic impact on Miami-Dade County, bringing thousands of jobs to the area and eventually contributing millions to the state coffers every year. For more information visit http://medicine.fiu.edu/

About FIU:
Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, FIU graduates more Hispanics than any other university in the country. Its 17 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University.” In 2006 FIU was authorized to establish a medical school, which will welcome its first class in 2009. FIU’s College of Law recently received accreditation in the fastest time allowed by the American Bar Association.

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