GARY | Within the next decade, the nation will experience a shortage of physicians. In Indiana alone, there will be about 3,000 fewer doctors than will be needed.

The Indiana University Medical School-Northwest on the campus of IU Northwest is expanding to help fill that gap, those attending the 11th Innovators Cafe learned Thursday. The Innovators Cafe Series is sponsored by Ivy Tech Community College and was hosted by IUN and the IUMS-NW for regional leaders from Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.

Details of the medical school expansion in Northwest Indiana were presented by Patrick Bankston, assistant dean and director of the IUSM-NW and dean of the IUN College of Health and Human Services. IUMS-NW is one of eight regional IU medical school programs.

The medical school on the IUN campus started in 1972 with a one-year, then two-year program, and has educated more than 400 physicians over those years, he said. Third- and fourth-year medical students have had to complete their studies in Indianapolis or Bloomington.

A pilot program with three third-year medical students started this year. In the summer of 2010, the medical school expects to enroll eight to 12 students, Bankston said. Fourth-year medical students will be part of the Northwest program by next fall.

"Our long-term goal is to have 40 students in each class or 160 student doctors working and studying with our local physicians and in our hospitals in Northwest Indiana," he said.

Northwest Indiana is well positioned for expansion because of its nine hospitals and the hundreds of physicians who are willing to serve as faculty, Bankston said. Students on the Bloomington campus, for example, have only one hospital for experience in such areas as surgery, obstetrics/gynecology and psychiatry. Some of those students must go to other regional campuses to complete their rotations.

The Indiana General Assembly has supported the expansion into a four-year medical degree program. It recently approved $3 million a year for the next two years.

However, expanding the program requires renovating the current Dunes Medical/Professional Building which provides classrooms for student doctors.

Designed in 2005, the building was created to accommodate only 18 students in each class. Classrooms and anatomy spaces must be expanded for up to 40 students in each class, Bankston said.

The $1.5 million renovation project is being funded with private donations.