Med Schools Booming

The health-care industry in America has seen explosive growth in recent years, but finding enough doctors to keep up with demand has been difficult. That's all changing, however, as nearly two dozen medical schools have either recently opened or are in the process of opening, an 18 percent increase in the nation's total that could help fuel a new wave of American-educated doctors. “Huge numbers of qualified American kids were not getting into American medical schools or going abroad to study,” Dr. Lawrence G. Smith, dean of the proposed Hofstra University School of Medicine, told the New York Times. “I think it was a kind of wake-up call.” A number of factors are behind the rise in med-school applications, according to the Times, including anticipation that health-care legislation will lead to a rise in insured patients looking for quality care, and the prospect of abundant jobs when baby boomers in the field begin to retire from their medical positions.