Guest opinion: Build a state medical school in Billings

Until we decide to become a leader, we won’t be.

Anyone who grew up with older siblings knows how you sometimes still get treated like a "kid brother," long after you’re not a kid. One hundred and fifteen years into statehood, Montana is often treated like a kid brother when major policy issues of regional or national scope are considered. At times, we even relegate ourselves to junior status, believing that it is best for more populated and senior states to control the playing field.

By COREY STAPLETON
Montana State Senator

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/12/09/build/opinion/45-guest-op2.inc

We live in the information age now. States that invest, harness and produce ideas will position their economies – if strategically aligned with the private sector – into a winning combination of market leadership, high-paying careers, incoming resources and nationally renowned educational institutions.

We should have a medical school in Billings.

As Montana learns to manufacture and add value to our abundance of natural resources, both from the ground and from our minds, we struggle with our relative position amongst the states. Until we decide to become a leader, we won’t be.

Education, health opportunities

At this intersection of two interstate highways, an international airport, two prestigious hospitals and two outstanding colleges, is a growing and healthy city with clustered economic development opportunities in both health services and higher education. By creating and integrating the top of the food chain for both communities – a medical school – we would set into motion a series of extraordinary events that would benefit all of Montana for all time.

Millions of federal dollars that currently go to other states could flow through Montana via a medical school focused on rural medicine and Native American and veterans’ issues. A teaching hospital would attract physicians and encourage world-class research, while a rural medicine focus would increase access and empower small towns in Montana and across rural America. We could be a leader in telemedicine, distance learning and other niches that many of us in Montana think of as daily living.

Montana is a client of the state of Washington when it comes to educating our doctors. We send our brightest and our money there. The WWAMI program, as it is called, is a classic example of Montana shipping her natural resources out of state for somebody else to add value.

Think about University of Montana’s Law School. What if we had believed that Missoula could never sustain a law school – that only law schools in bigger cities and other states were worthy? Lawyer jokes aside, the value of Montana’s School of Law to our state is undeniable. The school’s product is quality and is nationally recognized as top-notch.

Aside from a larger startup cost, the parallel between a successful school of medicine and a school of law is a useful consideration for Montanans. Support from Deaconess Billings Clinic, St. Vincent Healthcare and MSU-Billings would be vital. Many resources could be combined in focus and hope, all working towards a shared future that is greater than the sum of their parts.

Rural, urban benefits

A medical school for the future may not look like one from the past. It might be part cyber. It might partner with nontraditional departments or allies. Looking forward, it’s feasible that a newer medical school could capitalize on trends and directions that older schools cannot or choose not to.

I believe we can achieve a Montana balance between urban and rural benefit. We can streamline redundancies in health services and higher education. We can be rainmakers – bringing money in instead of sending it out. Bottom line is, a medical school in Billings can lift the entire state of Montana.

Corey Stapleton, R-Billings, is sponsoring a bill to "establish MSU-Billings School of Rural Medicine."

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