Tulane medical students could train at Baton Rouge General

Baton Rouge General Medical Center and Tulane University have signed a letter of intent that could lead to third- and fourth-year medical students training at the hospital as early as next summer. Dr. Flip Roberts, chief medical officer at Baton Rouge General, says while discussions are “very much in the conceptual phase,” the medical staff has strongly endorsed the idea. Roberts says the plan is to start small, with 10 or so Tulane students training at the hospital. Tulane has been forced to change its training patterns for students because of Hurricane Katrina, and the university wants to increase the number of medical students. An agreement with Baton Rouge General would give the university another place to train students and supply the medical center with a potential source of new doctors. “Training new physicians is a place where your future manpower comes from,” Roberts says. “Attracting physicians to Baton Rouge from somewhere else in the U.S. is much harder than actively training future physicians in your own community.” Roberts says he expects both sides will decide on the potential and size of any training by the end of the year.—Timothy Boone