SALEM — Some students at Oregon’s only medical school in Portland will get part of their training at Oregon State University and mid-valley hospitals under a plan announced Wednesday at the Capitol.

The students would spend the third of their four-year training program at OSU, working with doctors at hospitals in Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon.

The program is a collaboration between Oregon Health & Science University, OSU and Samaritan Health Services. OHSU already has been collaborating with the University of Oregon and PeaceHealth in Eugene to educate more medical students.

In fall 2008, 12 medical students are expected to receive some of their preclinical and clinical training in Corvallis, according to OSU spokesman Todd Simmons. The 2009 projection is 20 students.

“This new educational collaborative builds on our strong partnership with OHSU in pharmacy and a number of major research projects,” OSU President Ed Ray said in a news release. “Together we can have a significant impact on the training of medical students to meet the health care needs of the people of Oregon.”

Oregon has a shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas, officials said. Educating doctors in other parts of the state is expected to cause some of them to want to work there as well.

“By expanding our current program and creating regional campuses, we plan to increase the medical school entering class size by almost one-third,” OHSU President Joe Robertson said in a news release. The entering class was 120 in 2006.

The partnership will allow a group of medical students to receive some aspects of their preclinical and clinical training at OSU and Samaritan Health Services. Samaritan Health already has a similar program for nurses.

The program for medical students may start as early as next fall, said Samaritan spokeswoman Julie Manning. Doctors working at Samaritan hospitals in Corvallis, Lebanon and Albany would be invited to take on the medical students.

The hope is that, eventually, graduates of the medical school might also work as residents at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

Representatives of OHSU, OSU and Samaritan Health will meet over the next few months to develop a business plan for the new joint program.

The OHSU School of Medicine has increased its medical program entering class from 100 in 2001 to 120 in 2006, the maximum number of first-year students the Marquam Hill Campus in Portland can accommodate. That number should be closer to 200, said Robertson, which would still be 15 percent to 20 percent short based on a recent report by the Association of American of Medical Colleges.