{"id":57172,"date":"2025-08-09T19:32:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T23:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57172"},"modified":"2025-08-09T19:33:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T23:33:05","slug":"florida-poly-and-ocom-offer-an-accelerated-medical-degree-to-address-the-physician-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/09\/florida-poly-and-ocom-offer-an-accelerated-medical-degree-to-address-the-physician-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Poly and OCOM offer an accelerated medical degree to address the physician shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amid a growing&nbsp;healthcare provider shortage&nbsp;in Polk County, Florida Polytechnic University and the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine have announced a new six-year accelerated medical degree program designed to fast-track the next generation of doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"6d859f\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6d859f;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"534\" height=\"300\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AA1K4jH6.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57173 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AA1K4jH6.webp 534w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AA1K4jH6-300x169.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Polk County, reports show that they have half as many doctors, dentists, and pediatricians per 100,000 residents as the state average. This shortage has been linked to a rapid growth in the population.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also report a notable increase in emergency room visits linked to non-emergent care and general chronic disease management due to the absence of primary care access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the new initiative, students will be able to complete both a Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree in just six years \u2014 compared to the traditional eight years (four for undergrad, four for medical school), not including residency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The accelerated curriculum will assist students in getting both degrees needed by addressing physician shortages while making medical education accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hopes of the new program are that, by limiting entry to high-achieving students and eliminating the MCAT requirement, the program will be able to produce local physicians faster, more affordably, and in greater alignment with Florida\u2019s rapidly growing healthcare needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amid a growing&nbsp;healthcare provider shortage&nbsp;in Polk County, Florida Polytechnic University and the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine have announced a new six-year accelerated medical degree program designed to fast-track the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL0FBMUs0akg2LndlYnA_Zml0PTUzNCUyQzMwMCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgUG9seSBhbmQgT0NPTSBvZmZlciBhbiBhY2NlbGVyYXRlZCBtZWRpY2FsIGRlZ3JlZSB0byBhZGRyZXNzIHRoZSBwaHlzaWNpYW4gc2hvcnRhZ2UiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.HM5v-E9tyslsKJRTvW26X5_vYybUHqqcHQNfbwUW13cMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57173,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AA1K4jH6.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6481],"tags":[11955],"class_list":["post-57172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-florida-poly-and-ocom-offer-an-accelerated-medical-degree-to-address-the-physician-shortage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57174,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57172\/revisions\/57174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}