With Kentucky leading the nation in rates for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions, officials hope a new four-year medical school under construction in Bowling Green will help close a critical shortage of physicians.

Kentucky needs more physicians, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said during a groundbreaking ceremony for the project Tuesday.

Earthmoving equipment has already mobilized on the site for the Bowling Green campus of the UK College of Medicine adjacent to The Medical Center, and construction is expected to be completed by the summer of 2018.

The project to build the regional medical school campus is a partnership between UK, The Medical Center and Western Kentucky University.

The UK College of Medicine-Bowling Green will accept 30 students annually. It will be located in a multi-purpose building attached to a five-story parking garage located on The Medical Centers campus.

Jean Cherry, executive vice president of The Medical Center, is overseeing the project and said the medical school will be housed in the buildings second floor.

UK will lease the building for two-year terms that can be renewed three additional times for a total lifetime lease of eight years. The facilities are being built to fit UKs needs, Cherry added.

The medical school will follow an identical curriculum taught at UKs Lexington campus and use the same assessments. Faculty will have UK College of Medicine positions and teach in small groups through simulated patient experiences with lectures provided from the Lexington campus through educational technology.

WKU faculty will also provide instruction on site and remotely.

Dr. Don Brown of Bowling Green, a vascular surgeon, serves as director of medical education at The Medical Center and has been appointed assistant dean for the new medical school.

Speaking at the groundbreaking, Capilouto stressed the importance of the new regional location in expanding UKs ability to produce physicians.

Our UK College of Medicine in Lexington is at its capacity, he said. Although we have a deep applicant pool, we cant expand without the partnership that we engage in here today. ...

This collaboration allows us to effectively and efficiently utilize existing resources throughout the state to meet a very, very important need. Through partnership we can do more and we can be more than is ever possible alone.

Currently, UKs medical college enrolls almost 550 students. As UK expands, Capilouto said, it will add 30 percent more students.

As we add these satellite programs, well be able to increase our class size less costly than if we tried to do it on our own campus, he said. Those folks who are educated and trained close to home have a 60 to 70 percent greater likelihood of staying in their community or in nearby communities.

Connie Smith, president and CEO of Med Center Health, said some rural communities in Kentucky have no primary care physicians.

No primary care, no specialists, no physicians at all, she said. This medical school will be a key component in turning those numbers around. We want our brightest students to have the opportunity to stay in Kentucky to study medicine.

WKU President Gary Ransdell described the project as a momentous opportunity for the community, region and state.

Were dedicating something thats going to be important to all of us in our future, in our health care and certainly for those who need it the most in this region of Kentucky, he said.

Superintendent Rob Clayton of Warren County Public Schools called the project a tremendous benefit to the entire community, including future medical students.

It serves as inspiration for current K-12 students that they can reach their dreams in the medical profession, without leaving home, he said.

Superintendent Gary Fields of the Bowling Green Independent School District agreed. Bowling Green High School is planning its own health care career academy.

The new medical school, he said, says that Bowling Green has grown to a point that we deserve to have this.

Claci Ayers-Walls, a 2011 Gatton Academy graduate and third-year medical student at UK, said she would have enjoyed being able to attend medical school in her hometown of Bowling Green.

Im excited to see how its going to change the climate of Bowling Green, she said.

Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.

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Ground is broken for new BG med school - Bowling Green Daily News