There are more questions than answers right now in the debate over whether Rhode Island should create a state medical school.
What would it cost? Would taxpayers support it? Is it even needed in such a small state?
A state commission is wading into those and myriad other related issues, with a deadline to submit recommendations to the state Senate by Jan. 2, 2026.
Exorbitant education costs, low insurance reimbursement rates and limited local job opportunities make Rhode Island especially unattractive for primary care physicians, who can often earn more elsewhere.
A new medical school could lower education costs and attract more students. But it’s unclear whether the state’s teaching hospitals would commit to training more primary care residents to help keep more of them in Rhode Island.
Lifespan Corp. declined to answer questions while Care New England Health System said only that it looked forward to reviewing the commission’s recommendations.
Brown University, which operates the state’s only medical school, also has not weighed in publicly. But Dr. Jeffrey Borkan, assistant dean for the primary care-population medicine program at Brown, told PBN in this week’s cover story that he thinks a second medical school would “create havoc.”
Even if the new commission finds a state medical school has merit, it won’t be worth the expense without buy-in from all sides of the health care system.
But the state needs to do better for doctors and patients. So, if not a new medical school, then what? In a state ranked annually among the least welcoming for doctors, the status quo is not good enough.