(April 16)  Dr. Prem Reddy and the medical foundation he created and runs will put up $40 million to create a medical school in Colton.
Reddy, who is providing the lion’s share of the financial backing for the undertaking, is one of the four members of the just created board of the California University of Science and Medicine, to be known as CalMed. The other three board members are Dr. Dev GnanaDev, the chief of surgery and former medical director at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton;  Albert Karnig, former president of Cal State San Bernardino; and Dustin Corcoran, chief executive officer of the California Medical Association.
The board is hopeful that CalMed could achieve accreditation from the American Medical Association to enroll its first 50 students and begin classes as early as 2016. The institution would be affiliated with San Bernardino County’s public hospital, the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. The CalMed campus would be located less than a half mile from the county hospital.
Cal Med has opened a dialog with the successor agency to the city of Colton’s former redevelopment agency, which owns 21.5 acres at the corner of West Valley Boulevard and North Meridian Avenue. If the purchase can be arranged and the medical school established, medical students would be able to do many of their clinical rotations at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
“This is an exciting and much-needed opportunity for medical students in the Inland Empire and California,” GnanaDev said. “Because of many factors, including the extremely limited medical school spots in our state and severe shortage of doctors, we believe this project will have a significant positive impact on the economy, education and health for many decades.”