LITTLE ROCK From start-up costs to ongoing operating expenses to finding residency slots for graduates, Arkansas State University faces difficult challenges in its quest to establish an osteopathic medical school to help address a shortage of primary care doctors in the Arkansas Delta, 0fficials say.

ASU took the next step in a years-long process last week by hiring Tripp Umback, a nationally recognized health care and economic development consulting firm based in Pittsburgh to study the feasibility of developing an osteopathic medical school in Jonesboro.

Weve done our research and we realize our limitations, and that is why were bringing in this company, this third party, to help make an evidenced decision, Jason Penry, ASU vice chancellor for university advancement, said last week.

Penry said the study, which he projects will be completed by the end of the year, will look at both public and private medical school options and will consider a number of variables, including cost and the residency training of third-and fourth-year students as well as graduates.

The feasibility study is supported by the Delta Regional Authority, which has given ASU $25,000 to help cover about half of the nearly $50,000 cost.

Efforts to overcome the difficulties could provide dividends for rural health care, he said, by providing doctors of osteopathic medicine in areas of the state where doctors are scarce.

A DO school could be totally transformative to the state of Arkansas because nobody disputes the need for primary health care is great, he said.

Dr. Gregg S. Silberg, who recently was part of efforts to establish an osteopathic medical school in Wisconsin, said hurdles are many and steep.

Among them would be finding residencies for the graduates because only a limited number of qualified institutions offer such opportunities, said Silberg, who is executive director of the Wisconsin Association of Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons.

Estimated start up cost for the proposed 100 student private, nonprofit osteopathic medical school in Wisconsin would be about $80 million, he said.

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Officials: ASU faces challenges in establishing osteopathic medical school