For Profit Medical Schools

An Idea Whose Time Has 

Unfortunately Come?

From the Orlando Sentinel

Palm Beach Medical College seeking state license and national accreditation

The proposed school has applied for a license from the state to issue medical degrees. And it is seeking accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting agency for schools granting medical degrees.

"The demand for doctors is alarmingly high," said Pete Martinez, a former IBM vice president who is chairman of Palm Beach Medical Education Corporation. "If you look at the state of medical schools right now, you can't count on states right now to fund them … If you go to the private sector, the private sector will get it immediately."

Martinez is working with Dr. Carlos Martini, Palm Beach Medical's president and CEO, to establish the new medical school.

Martini was instrumental in developing and winning approval for Florida International University's medical school. He worked with the University of California Merced as it developed a medical school. Martini, the former vice president for medical education at the American Medical Association, also has helped develop international medical schools. 


Medical students would work in small groups with faculty mentors. The students would have early exposure — in the first two years — to patient care in clinical settings such as physician offices, hospitals and nursing homes.

Palm Beach Medical already has an agreement with the University of California system to use its joint medical program curriculum.

Technology would play a large role in the curriculum, with much of the education material electronic, allowing students to have three-dimensional views of patient cases. Electronic medical records would be instrumental in the students' education.

With the strong technology component, Martinez calls it "a disruptive model of how you do medical education."

The target opening is 2012, with an inaugural class of 100. Proposed tuition is $50,700 a year.