Christine Webb, News 13 Health Reporter
It was a big year for the medical industry in Orlando, and it is expected to only get bigger from here.
A medical community is springing up just south of Orlando International Airport. Soon, the area will be home to a Veterans Administration Medical Center, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, Nemours Children's Hospital, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center, and at the center of it all, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine.
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"It's been a very big dream to have this medical school," said Dr. John Hitt, president of the University of Central Florida.
The school was created in 2006 by the Florida Legislature and Florida Board of Governors.
Demand so far to get into the school has broken records. Over 4,000 applications for the M.D. program have been received.
With an initial class size of 40, students wanting to be part of the new medical school will have a 1 in 100 chance of being admitted, and all of those students will receive full scholarships.
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Aside from the students, the school is also projected to help the struggling Central Florida economy.
"The projections for the economist that we retained were that by year 10, that medical center had the potential to have an annual economic impact of $6.4 billion, and create an additional 25,000 very well-paying jobs," Hitt said.
In June, the first concrete for the foundation of the College of Medicine classroom was poured, and construction continues.
The school is set to open its doors in the fall of 2009.
You can keep an eye on the construction process with a 24-hour Web camera set up so you can see how the site looks.