Senate commission feasibility study finds URI ‘well-positioned’ to launch medical school
In advance of the public hearing, the commission released an independent feasibility study that found establishing a medical school at URI is “both viable and necessary to meet the state’s pressing healthcare needs.”
The
21-member commission was appointed in July 2024 by late Senate President
Dominick J. Ruggerio, and is chaired by Senator Pam Lauria and URI President
Marc Parlange. The independent study, conducted by consulting firm Tripp
Umbach, a nationally regarded firm with leadership in economic impact studies
and consultation services for academic medical campuses and medical schools,
was commissioned in February 2025 following a competitive process.
“As the state’s flagship public research university, we are committed every day to advancing our state and enhancing the quality of life for Rhode Islanders,” said URI President Marc Parlange. “Through our health-focused colleges, we are improving health outcomes across the state. We remain dedicated to working with state leaders, health care providers, and community members to address primary care challenges. I am deeply grateful to the commission members for their ongoing, important work on this issue that touches the lives of every Rhode Islander.”
Feasibility study calls public medical school “an
essential investment”
The study recommends establishing a public, M.D.-granting
medical education program at URI, and outlines a proposed four-year, five-phase
plan that would culminate in the launch of the program’s charter class in fall
2029.
Rhode Island is experiencing a net loss of primary care
clinicians, according to the study. The inability of many Rhode Island
residents to find primary care physicians has resulted in the use of community
health centers and urgent care facilities to meet their medical needs,
straining resources and creating additional pressures on the health care
system.
With one-quarter of Rhode Island’s 1.1 million residents age
60 or over—a demographic that requires a higher per-capita need of health care
services—that shortage is expected to worsen in the years ahead. By 2030, the
state is projected to have a deficit of roughly 100 primary care
providers. That problem is compounded by Rhode Island’s aging workforce,
including over 40% of family physicians over age 55 as of 2018 and approaching
retirement.
Among the report’s key findings:
- A
public M.D. program “represents a clear and strategic pathway for the
University of Rhode Island to address the state’s most pressing healthcare
and economic challenges” and is “an essential investment in the future
health, economic vitality, and resilience of Rhode Island and its
communities.”
- Compared
with other public universities that have recently launched M.D. programs,
URI has a solid institutional foundation, including significant growth in
research as a designated Carnegie R1 institution and the well-established
Colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Health Sciences.
- A URI
medical school would be financially viable and would “generate a
transformative return” on state investment. That investment would include
$175 million in private and state contributions for start-up and
facilities, along with ongoing annual state support of approximately $22.5
million and additional funding for grant- and loan-based retention
programs.
- A new
URI school of medicine would contribute approximately $196 million
annually to the state economy, and return nearly $30 in economic activity,
tax revenue, and health care cost savings for every $1 taxpayers invest.
While Rhode Island has taken significant steps to reduce its
physician workforce shortage through grants, student-loan forgiveness, support
for primary care training and other programs aimed at recruitment and
retention, the report found that creation of a medical school at URI would
amplify these efforts and provide a direct pipeline of physicians ready to meet
the state’s health care needs.
The report also found that the M.D. model would provide “a
strong complement to Brown University’s private medical school by enabling URI
to establish a mission-driven, community-based program focused on primary care,
population health, and retaining graduates in Rhode Island.” The report noted
that in contrast to higher tuition and lower acceptance rates of private
medical schools, “URI can offer a more accessible and affordable pathway into
medical education.”
Public testimony offers broad support for a public
medical school
More than a dozen state elected officials, medical
professionals, and interested residents offered public testimony during the
special commission’s public hearing on Thursday at the State House. There was
near-universal support for a public medical school, with many speakers noting
URI’s existing strengths in health-related disciplines and contributions to
state health care. Among the elected officials who spoke in support of a public
medical school at URI were Lt. Governor Sabina Matos, Secretary of State Gregg
Amore, and General Treasurer James Diossa.
“Our nation and our state are in the throes of a health care
crisis,” Secretary of State Amore said while addressing the commission. “It is
imperative that our state invests in opportunities to retain and support
medical professionals, while at the same time create an environment that will
nurture the next generation of primary care physicians.” Noting the benefits of
a public medical school, he said, “I believe that health care is a basic human
right. Government has a key role to play to that end. Supporting the
establishment of a public medical school at the University of Rhode Island
fulfills one of the many responsibilities of a government of, for, and by the
people—the responsibility of the government to promote the general welfare.”
Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, a
state federation of labor unions that represents more than 80,000 members
in Rhode Island, spoke in “strong support” of a public medical school, calling
it “the right thing to do.” Crowley said, “We believe that Rhode Island needs a
bold vision on so many different things. But a key component of that is making
sure that we have a healthy and well-protected workforce and citizenry.”
Nitin Damle, a board certified physician and past president
of the American College of Physicians, said he was not taking a position for or
against the formation of a public medical school, but that he wanted to present
recommendations to the commission to address the state’s primary care access
problem. Damle, who also is a clinical faculty member at Brown University’s
Warren Alpert Medical School, noted the need to create a post-graduate training
program for primary care and stressed the importance of “reforming the
significant payment differential between primary care and the subspecialties.”
“We recognize URI as a major contributor to primary care
already,” said Matt Roman, chief strategy officer at Thundermist Health Center,
which, he said, provides primary care to 1 in 18 Rhode Islanders. Roman said
the health center employs many nurses and clinical pharmacists trained at URI.
“We actually couldn’t survive without URI grads,” he said. “The thought of a
medical school being established at URI is very attractive to us, particularly
one that has a primary care focus as compared to the research focus of our
current medical school.”
Merrill Thomas, president and CEO of the Providence
Community Health Centers and chair of the Rhode Island Health Center
Association board, spoke in more stark terms. He said that his organization
serves 85,000 patients in Providence and that 210,000 people in the state
receive care at a community health center. Thomas said there are physician
vacancies at health centers that “we can’t fill,” and that Rhode Island needs
to “grow our own and keep our own” as it relates to primary care physicians.
“The consequences are dire if we don’t do anything,” he said, “so the time to
act is now.”
Jeremy Cumplido, a community organizer with the Central
Falls-based nonprofit organization Fuerza Laboral, spoke of his own experience
navigating the health system as a 22-year-old seeking primary care. “I had to
scour the network and call 20 different offices,” he said. “There is a
definitive advantage in having more primary care physicians that look like me,”
he continued. “When I go get taken care of, is that person someone who I can
empathize with and that can empathize with me?” Cumplido encouraged the
commission to “go forward and be able to bring along a world-class facility, a
world-class program to bring more primary care physicians to the state of Rhode
Island. Because not only would it be something beneficial for the state, but it
would be something beneficial to my community.”
Jenna Iannuccilli, an internal medicine physician and
associate program director of the internal medicine residency at Landmark
Medical Center in Woonsocket, shared her personal view as a native Rhode
Islander. Iannuccilli, a graduate of Johnston High School and the University of
Rhode Island, said, “A URI medical school would give more Rhode Island students
the opportunity to pursue medicine locally, increasing the likelihood that they
will train here, enter residency programs in state, and ultimately practice in
Rhode Island. It would also expand opportunities for first-generation college
students like me, students from marginalized communities, and all Rhode
Islanders, helping keep physicians here at home.”
A recording of the commission hearing is available on
the Capitol TV
website.
The special commission is expected to make a formal
recommendation to the Senate by Jan. 2, 2026.
