Hugs, cheers and smiles emerged from the medical school staff after the notification from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

The $59 million structure will be owned by Virginia Tech while Carilion Clinic owns the Roanoke land that the building sits on.

Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Cynda Johnson (right), dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, reacts after being notified Wednesday that the school has been given preliminary accreditation. She is joined by F. Terri Workman, senior associate dean for operations, and other staff.

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine received preliminary accreditation Wednesday and can begin recruiting students.

A phone call shortly after noon notifying Dr. Cynda Johnson, dean of the school, of the news ended with cheers, hugs and smiles from the medical school staff gathered in her office.

Johnson, the eight associate deans and other leadership staff had gathered about an hour earlier to have a photo taken as they waited to hear from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education whether VTC had achieved the critical step.

Up until receiving accreditation, the school's leadership had been in the planning phases of becoming a medical school and was unable to promote VTC to potential students. In order to achieve the goal of opening its doors by August 2010, the school needed to earn preliminary accreditation this month.

With the news, Johnson and her team immediately took steps to recruit the first class of 42 students.

Soon after, Stephen Workman, director of admissions, was online posting the good news to a networking forum for medical students.

The timing of the committee's decision also allows VTC to be added to the national recruiting list run by the Medical College Admission Test, which is the exam medical students take as part of the application process. Tuesday marked the beginning of the 2010 recruiting season done through MCAT, making the timing perfect, Johnson said.

"It is a huge help for us to be able to work through the national recruiting service," she said.

Johnson said the school expects to get between 1,000 and 4,000 applications by Dec. 1. The process will be done through rolling admissions, and Johnson said by late July they will be selecting students to submit a secondary application. From the secondary applications some students will be chosen for interviews.

Tuition is set at $40,000 a year. With housing and living expenses, the cost to attend is estimated at $55,000 annually, Workman said.

In many ways, Johnson and the others are counting on some of the nontraditional elements in the curriculum and school philosophy to attract students.

"We have been able to come from every aspect of the school and look at how we can be the best and the most inventive," Johnson said. "And we've been able to ask at every step what can help us educate the doctors of the future and not the doctors for today."

Among the unique approaches has been pairing the school with a research institute and making medical research a key component of the curriculum. Another is a focus on a team-approach to practicing medicine.

Those were among the main themes touted by Virginia Tech President Charles Steger and Carilion Clinic CEO Dr. Ed Murphy when they first began talking about a partnership. While the school is a separate private entity, it is closely linked to both Carilion and Virginia Tech, with members of both communities sitting on the school's board.

Murphy and Steger first announced the medical school venture in January 2007 after several months of planning. A trip to Cleveland to visit the medical school associated with the Cleveland Clinic in 2006 helped to solidify the concepts, Murphy said.

"Really we got to spend the whole day together uninterrupted and focused on the medical school and implications of it," Murphy said.

They knew they wanted a unique medical school that didn't follow the tradition of large class sizes and lecture rooms. They and others discussed the need to combine education, research and medicine.

"We need doctors," Steger said. "But the type of medical education that we hope to provide is one that enables doctors to practice medicine and at the same time be involved in research."

That's important not only for promoting breakthroughs in medicine, but also for the economic success of the region, Steger said. By housing the research institute in the same building as the medical school, Steger said the stage is being set to spawn new business development based on biomedical research.

Murphy said the school is already helping Carilion as it recruits new physicians to join its relatively new clinic system. Since Carilion began its transition from a traditional hospital system to a clinic, more than 200 physicians have joined Carilion's staff. Murphy said many of those have been interested in being affiliated with the medical school.

So far 295 people have been appointed to the school faculty, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, construction is on schedule for what will be the 154,000-square-foot Roanoke home for the school, Johnson said. Taxpayers are footing the bill for the $59 million structure that will be owned by Virginia Tech. Carilion Clinic owns the land that the building sits on near the corner of South Jefferson Street and Reserve Avenue.

Online: www.vtc.vt.edu