BYU launching med school to address "international health issues" for LDS members
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Graduates at BYU's campus in Provo. Photo: Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Brigham Young University is launching a medical school, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Monday.
The big picture: It will be the state's fourth medical school — and the second with ties to a major Utah university, alongside the University of Utah.
The intrigue: "Unlike many medical schools, the BYU medical school will be focused on teaching with research in areas of strategic importance to the church," church officials wrote in a news statement.
- The school will focus on "international health issues affecting members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and the church's "worldwide humanitarian efforts," per the statement.
- The church's membership has grown most rapidly in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region in recent years.
Between the lines: It's not clear how else the faith's strategic goals will affect the topics of research and instruction offered at the school.
- The church opposes abortion but deems birth control a personal choice.
- It encourages professional health care for mental illness, departing from some religious traditions that tacitly or overtly discourage medical treatment or therapy for psychiatric problems.
- The faith forbids members in good standing from using coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco and some other drugs under the "Word of Wisdom," characterizing the rules as a "health code."
- The church encourages regular, intermittent fasting — a pattern that has already been the subject of some medical research.
The fine print: BYU isn't planning to launch a hospital or hospital system, but it is discussing potential clinical collaborations with Intermountain Health.
- Leaders at the University of Utah, which operates the state's largest medical school, "will work with BYU and church leadership to lay the groundwork for a model collaboration that serves the needs of this state and provides critical health services to countries around the world," U president Taylor Randall said in a prepared statement.
Context: Utah has the ninth-fewest physicians per capita of any state, per the American Association of Medical Colleges.
- A major chokepoint is the number of training slots for medical residents, which a new medical school could help alleviate if it supports residency programs in hospitals here.
Yes, but: With BYU's planned focus on international medical needs and religious goals, it's unclear whether the new medical school will channel many physicians into Utah's clinics and hospitals.
What's next: The church provided no timeline for when the school will open, saying only that "specific target dates will be announced as they are set."