1St Maryland Medical School Opened In 100 Years To Welcome: Maryland’s First New Medical School in Over 100 Years Is About to Welcome Its Second Class
→ Penn State Approves Tuition Hikes and Spending Cuts as Enrollment Decline Drains Revenue
A quiet but significant moment in American medical education is unfolding in Hagerstown, Maryland. The Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine, the first new medical school to open in Maryland in more than a century, is preparing to welcome its second class of students this fall, building on a milestone that took roughly 1,000 days of continuous planning to reach.
A school born from a shortage
The push to create Meritus wasn’t driven by prestige or expansion for its own sake. It came from a straightforward and pressing problem: not enough doctors.
→ Counties Announce School Closures for Jan. 15
Nationally, the United States is projected to face a shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2030. Washington County, where Hagerstown sits, is already feeling it, with studies pointing to a current shortfall of 52 physicians in the area alone. Rural and semi-rural communities like this one tend to struggle the hardest when physician supply tightens, since they lack the academic medical centers and large health systems that attract doctors to urban areas.
Meritus Health, the regional health system behind the school, set out to address that gap directly. The idea was to train physicians close to the communities that need them, on the theory that doctors who train locally are more likely to stay and practice locally.
What it took to get here
Getting a brand-new medical school off the ground is no small feat. Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine had to clear two major regulatory hurdles before it could open its doors. It received conditional approval to operate as an in-state degree-granting institution from the Maryland Higher Education Commission, and it earned pre-accreditation from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation.
Those approvals, combined with the years of planning, curriculum development, faculty recruitment, and facility preparation that preceded them, made the school’s first class possible. Enrollment for the fall 2025 semester has since opened for what will be the program’s second cohort.
Maulik Joshi, president and CEO of Meritus Health, framed the school’s launch as something with consequences well beyond the current moment. “We started on this path to fill the critical shortage of physicians in our community, the state and the nation,” he said. “Now, we’ve taken the steps that will create generational change.”
What comes next
The school trains osteopathic physicians, a designation that carries full medical licensing and prescribing rights in all 50 states. Osteopathic medical schools have played a growing role in addressing physician shortages in underserved areas, and Meritus fits squarely into that tradition.
With its second class now enrolling, the school moves from a one-time milestone into something more durable: a functioning institution producing physicians year after year for a region that has long needed them.
Relevant posts
- Jamier Daniel Arrested for Handgun at SC High School
- Ohio School Board Suspends High School in 5-0 Vote
- Liberty High School on Sommers Road O’Fallon MO Update
Visit atholtonnews.com for more stories.