By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

An osteopathic medical doctorate program could be back on at Missouri Southern State University.

A group of about 50 people, including members of the Joplin City Council, the presidents of several area colleges, state legislators and local hospital representatives, will meet today to get more information on the proposed program and possibly sign community-support letters.

The meeting will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the fourth floor of Spiva Library at the university.

Speakers will include a representative from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences; Richard Schooler, chief medical officer with Freeman Health System; and Gary Duncan, chief executive officer at Freeman.

The local medical doctorate program was proposed by Larry McIntire, a local physician, during an MSSU Board of Governors meeting last summer. The original price tag for the program was estimated at $15 million to $30 million. But that amount grew to $80 million, and the proposal was put on hold.

MSSU President Bruce Speck said Friday that Southern is working with the Kansas City university to create a public-private partnership to put the medical program in Joplin.

The Kansas City school is accredited with the Higher Learning Commission and the American Osteopathic Association, he said, and MSSU would serve as an extension office of that school’s program. Speck said the Kansas City school is submitting the paperwork for Southern to be a satellite school.

Speck said the MSSU program would take 150 students at a time for the two-year, postgraduate program. Students then could do their clinical work at a local hospital or one outside the area.

“About 30 percent of the doctors who graduate from a particular school stay in the area,” Speck said.

Speck said the new medical program would use the new Health Sciences Building currently being constructed on campus, but it also would require another building, specifically to house a cadaver lab. He estimated that would cost $7 million to build.