Amid critical practitioner shortage, UMaine to explore opening public medical school

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The University of Maine System is exploring the possibility of starting the state’s first public medical school in an effort to address the critical shortage of healthcare professionals in Maine.

Currently, Maine is one of a handful of states — including Alaska, Delaware, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming — that do not have any schools offering an MD degree. The University of New England currently has the state’s only osteopathic medical school, which offers a DO degree.

Last year, the Maine Legislature provided funding for the university system to undertake a study to examine establishing a public medical school in Penobscot County, associated with the state’s flagship university in Orono. The system chose a firm that has worked with most medical schools across the country and conducted feasibility studies in states without medical schools such as Idaho and Montana, according to a news release by the system.

The study will determine the need for a public medical school as well as the resources required — including funding, staffing, research, laboratories and equipment — for such a school to be built.

Any proposal to establish a medical school within the university system would require a public review process and approval by the UMS Board of Trustees, as well as significant public and philanthropic support, according to the news release.

The system will collect feedback from state and federal healthcare organizations, representatives from hospitals, other medical programs and policymakers as part of the feasibility study.

“As with Maine in general, our physician population is aging. It has been difficult to keep pace with retirements and demographic shifts to fulfill the healthcare needs of northern Maine,” said Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center Director of Clinical Education Dr. James Jarvis in a statement.

Thirteen of Maine’s 16 counties are considered, at least in part, health professional shortage areas. A 2023 analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Portland Press Herald found that Maine’s health care workforce has declined in the years following the pandemic, falling from 42,3902 in 2019 to 41,110 in 2022. This drop was particularly acute among those who provide primary care.

“This exciting first step, determining the feasibility of a new medical school in Penobscot County, may spark interest in current physicians to move here, while looking toward building a sustainable physician workforce for the future,” Jarvis added.

While the UMS Board of Trustees is authorized to operate a college of medicine and confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine, the system has never had the resources to start a medical school, the news release said.

The feasibility study and its recommendations are due to the Maine Legislature in November 2025.

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