14, 2025—A Rhode Island Senate special legislative commission charged with studying Rhode Island’s health care workforce and issues related to the state’s primary care crisis met Thursday evening to hear public testimony regarding the prospect of creating a medical school at the University of Rhode Island. In advance of the public hearing, the commission released an independent feasibility study that found establishing a medical school at URI is “both viable and necessary to meet the state’s pressing healthcare needs.” The 21-member commission was appointed in July 2024 by late Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, and is chaired by Senator Pam Lauria and URI President Marc Parlange. The independent study, conducted by consulting firm Tripp Umbach, a nationally regarded firm with leadership in economic impact studies and consultation services for academic medical cam…

Rhode Island is experiencing a net loss of primary care clinicians, according to the study. The inability of many Rhode Island residents to find primary care physicians has resulted in the use of community health centers and urgent care facilities to meet their medical needs, straining resources and creating additional pressures on the health care system. With one-quarter of Rhode Island’s 1.1 million residents age 60 or over—a demographic that requires a higher per-capita need of health care services—that shortage is expected to worsen in the years ahead. By 2030, the state is projected to have a deficit of roughly 100 primary care providers. That problem is compounded by Rhode Island’s aging workforce, including over 40% of family physicians over age 55 as of 2018 and approaching retirement. program “represents a clear and strategic pathway for the University of Rho…