Researchers-hospital aid new med school

Providing needed doctors to practice in Northeastern PA East Stroudsburg — Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the Sanofi-Aventis Group, and Pocono Medical Center have announced financial support for The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC) in a collaborative venture to expertly train and retain physicians in the region. Details of the financial commitments were announced on Jan. 27 at Pocono Medical Center, in East Stroudsburg, as Sanofi Pasteur officially presented a $1.5 million dollar gift to TCMC. This gift, secured by Sanofi Pasteur President and CEO, Wayne Pisano, will be used for the further development of research facilities at the medical school. The donation marks one of the largest provided by Sanofi Pasteur US to date. The new medical school was created to ease the projected physician shortage in Northeastern Pennsylvania and has a goal of admitting 70% Pennsylvanians who will hopefully stay in the region to practice medicine and care for patients. The College is projected to add 425 qualified, diverse practicing physicians to Northeastern Pennsylvania during the next 20 years. In addition, the new medical school is expected to add $70 million to the local economy once it is open and create 1,000 new jobs that directly and indirectly support the school’s operations. Pocono Medical Center’s President and CEO, Kathleen E. Kuck spoke to the physician shortage in the region. “We are experiencing a provider shortage in our area of approximately 100 physicians. Our ability to continue to reduce medical provider shortages in multiple specialties will be significantly enhanced though our relationship with The Commonwealth Medical College. We will have the ability to continue to add to and expand our existing service lines through the recruitment of the highly trained students of TCMC.” Pocono Medical Center provided support at the Founder’s Society level with a gift of $80,000, and will partner with TCMC to offer advanced training opportunities to medical students. The Commonwealth Medical College is a new medical school that will serve all of Northeastern Pennsylvania and expects to accept sixty medical students and thirty Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) students in 2009.The College has campuses in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Williamsport and currently has 75 full time employees and 430 Clinical Faculty members to date. The Commonwealth Medical College is dedicated to training the next generation of physicians in a community-based model. Focusing on selecting students with a propensity for community service, the school’s unique structure is designed to provide these students with diverse clinical experiences from the very first day of their education. The Commonwealth Medical College has received degree-granting authority from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. For more information, go to www.thecommonwealthmedical.com. Sanofi Pasteur is located on a 500-plus acre campus in Swiftwater, Pa. The site employs approximately 2200 individuals who work in all aspects of providing new and improved immunological products. Sanofi Pasteur US includes 44 buildings, encompassing more than one million square feet of space for industrial operations, research & development and commercial operations. For more information, please visit: www.sanofipasteur.us .