The University of New England (UNE) is Maine’s largest private university and its largest educator of healthcare professionals. UNE is constructing the Institute of Interprofessional Education and Practice on its Portland Campus (IIPEP). UNE’s Institute will serve as the new home to UNE's College of Osteopathic Medicine, which is the largest provider of physicians for Maine. This project will expand the medical school class size from 175 to 200 students annually in response to existing and projected physician workforce shortages. UNE also will build the information technological infrastructure necessary to develop and implement digital health curricula for medical and health professions students. This will include telehealth, virtual simulation, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies that prepare UNE health professions students for virtual healthcare delivery to rural and underserved Mainers. Through the co-location of UNE’s Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, Health Professions, and Dental Medicine on the Portland campus, UNE will establish a comprehensive interprofessional health education setting with 2,500 health professions students unparalleled in New England. This will substantially expand UNE’s capacity to develop new models for interprofessional education, clinical practice, and research needed for healthcare education and practice reforms. UNE’s project will increase the number of available seats for physician education at the College of Osteopathic Medicine by nearly 15 percent. This will significantly improve Maine’s and the nation’s physician pipeline. The Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies and Family Medicine in Primary Care predicts that Maine will need an additional 120 primary care physicians by 2030. This analysis accounts for population changes, aging, and the impact of the ACA. Currently, more than four in 10 Maine physicians are between the ages of 55 and 74. The U.S. Health Resources and Services
Administration has designated Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas in each of Maine’s 16 counties. Maine is the oldest state in the nation, with nearly one in five residents aged 65 or older. In 2019, Governor Janet Mills expanded Medicaid (MaineCare) under the Affordable Care Act. As of May 2021, nearly 78,000 additional Mainers have access to MaineCare. While this expansion is a welcome improvement in healthcare access for the underserved, 78,000 additional patients adds pressure to the primary care physician workforce. UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine will be a critical asset in filling the U.S. need for physicians. Founded in 1978, UNE’s osteopathic medical school has graduated over 4,000 osteopathic physicians into the U.S. workforce. UNE’s medical school is Maine’s largest educator of physicians, both historically and currently. In 2018, UNE graduated more physicians into the Maine physician workforce than Tufts (which operates a Maine Track program), Dartmouth, and the University of Massachusetts medical schools combined. Furthermore, 65 percent of UNE’s osteopathic medicine graduates practice a primary care specialty, one-third practice in a rural area, and one in five practice in a medically underserved area. With the construction of UNE’s Institute for Interprofessional Education and Practice, we will expand class enrollment to 200 osteopathic medicine students, a nearly 15 percent increase over current enrollment levels. This is essential to ensuring an adequate supply of primary care physicians for the future.