Fort Worth M.D. school will be a prescription for economic growth
Leading medical economic expert predicts financial impact in the billions
The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, set to open in 2019, will have a $100 million to $150 million economic impact on Fort Worth when it reaches maturity in about 10 years, but that shrinks into insignificance when the overall impact of an academic medical center is considered, says consultant Paul Umbach.
“When you look at the economic impact of a medical school, you really just start with the medical school itself. That’s the teaching of medical students, and it’s the faculty and the folks that come together,” Umbach said at a Leadership Fort Worth community event on April 18 at the Fort Worth Club and at a later news conference. Both focused on health care.
“But when you start to look across the country at all of the academic medical centers, the average is about $1.7 billion a year for each of those,” Umbach said. “Keep in mind, that’s every year; so, every year there’s $1.7 billion that circulates throughout the regional economy from a fully developed academic medical center.”