For decades, the Association of American Medical Colleges (now called the AAMC) has been concerned about the shortage of physicians in the U.S. In fact, they predict in ten years there will be a shortage of “up to 86,000 physicians.” This should concern all Americans because in place of exiting physicians, vacancies are being filled by the proliferation of undertrained and inexperienced nurse practitioners and physician assistants. But there is good news.
medscape.com published an article reporting on the recent surge in the founding and opening of allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medical schools. According to the AAMC, “Currently, 163 schools of medicine are open in the U.S., and 47 colleges of osteopathic medicine are in operation…..Since January 2020, 22 new teaching campuses for osteopathic schools have opened…..[and] Since 2019, 11 programs granting MD degrees have gotten preliminary or full approval…”
So far in 2026, five new medical schools or medical education campuses have been announced.
- The University of Missouri in Columbia has a Springfield campus that will expand to a four-year regional medical school and open in the summer of 2027. The first class will have 32 students, but when fully operational will have 128 students.
- Franciscan Alliance, an Indiana Catholic healthcare system is building an osteopathic medical school in Crown Point, IN. It is expected to open in 2030 and enroll 200 students.
- Tennessee-based Lincoln Memorial University is opening a medical school campus in Orange Park, FL, a suburb of Jacksonville. This will be an osteopathic school and the only four-year medical school in the Jacksonville area.
- The University of Georgia in Athens will establish a new independent School of Medicine.
- Larkin University in Miami is planning a new College of Osteopathic Medicine that will open in the Fall of 2028.
Also, MD schools of medicine have opened in Nashville, TN, Bentonville, AR, and Fayetteville, NC, and soon will in Santa Clara, CA. Osteopathic schools have opened in Hagerstown, MD, Memphis, TN, Greely, CO, and Pittsburgh, PA.
If one takes medical school openings back 20 years, investigators from Duke University, Indiana University, and a medical school in Abu Dhabi “identified” 60 new medical schools:
Thirty-three (55%) were allopathic (MD) schools
Twenty-seven (45%) were osteopathic (DO) schools
Forty (66.7%) were private institutions
Twenty (33.3%) were public institutions
63.6% of allopathic schools are in urban areas
59.6% of osteopathic schools are in suburban areas
Mean annual tuition for all schools for in-state students is $48,782.82
Mean annual tuition for all schools for out-of-state students is $56,072.37
Matriculant GPA and MCAT scores are significantly lower in newly established schools
More women than men entered new medical schools
Native American, Alaska Native, and Black students were underrepresented in the newer
schools
Hispanic/Latino population was significantly higher in newer schools
FL, TEX, and CA have multiple new schools
ND, SD, MN, NE, WI, IA, MO, WY, OH, OR have not had a new schools in 50 years
The goal of new schools is to improve diversity within the practitioner population, but to accomplish that, the diversity of medical students must be changed first, and that first step has thus far been elusive.
References: Alsoud LO, West K, Sorrell S, Andolsek KM, Hageh CA, Ibrahim H. A cross-sectional study of newly established medical schools in the United States: student body diversity remains an unmet challenge. Med Ed online 2025; 30
www.google.com/view-article/new-American-medical-schools.
Taylor M. 5 new medical schools announced in 2026. Beckers 11th Annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference. 2026 Sep.
Doheny K. New US Medical Schools: These Aren’t your parents’ programs. medscape.com 2026 June 18.
