A lot of smart kids got their white coats Saturday, but Assistant Surgeon General Dr. Donald Weaver warned that the country is going to need more, and soon.

With a predicted shortage of doctors looming on the horizon as baby boomers begin to hit retirement age, Weaver told the inaugural class of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences that the job of the primary physician -- the school's focus -- is only going to get lonelier.

"We live in the richest nation in the world, and yet the U.S. Census Bureau reports some 45 million people are without health insurance, and millions more are underinsured," he said.

Weaver, deputy associate administrator for primary care in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, welcomed the 75 achievers who make up the Class of 2012 and were on hand en masse for the traditional White Coat ceremony, in which fledgling medical students get their first lab jacket.

"Everything you do must be with and for your patients," stressed Weaver, a 1973 graduate of Harvard Medical School and a rear admiral in the Navy. "Listen to them -- they will be your best teachers."

The ceremony, the latest in a series of events marking the birth of the new $20 million school, was held at the Yakima Convention Center and was attended by a huge throng of proud parents,
well-wishers and civic leaders. Classes actually began last month.

Also in attendance in full academic regalia were the entire faculty, administration and board of trustees of the new school, the first medical college in the Northwest in 60 years and one of about 20 osteopathic medical schools nationwide.

Throughout the ceremony, school officials stressed Pacific Northwest University's mission of providing communities with primary physicians well-trained in the art of prevention and the whole body, the focus of osteopathic medicine.

"It is only through collaboration and collaborative education ... that we will succeed in treating patients, not just disease," said Dr. William Betz, dean of the university's College of Osteopathic Medicine and one of President Stan Flemming's top aides.

From its 45-acre campus in Terrace Heights, the new medical school is just the latest feather in Yakima's cap. The city is experiencing historic economic growth in the East and West valleys, not to mention downtown and the anticipated redevelopment of the old Boise Cascade mill site.

A 2006 economic impact study commissioned by the fledgling university estimated an annual payroll of nearly $6 million by 2012. Faculty and staff will spend more than $22 million on housing during that four-year period, and another $3.4 million on taxable household purchases.