Giving Compass' Take:
- Liz Carey reports on how medical schools are providing underserved rural communities with specialists trained in working with rural residents.
- How might it help underserved rural communities for medical schools to locate their programs in these communities? How can donors support rural health care access?
- Ask a custom question to find other nonprofits focused on rural health care access.
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For many rural communities across the country, the crisis in healthcare manifests as a lack of specialized healthcare. American medical schools are taking note and working toward providing specialists trained in treating rural residents.
From Eastern Tennessee’s mountains to the Pacific Northwest and beyond, medical schools are moving their programs directly into the communities that need them the most.
While people living in rural communities make up about 20% of the American population, only 9% of physicians across the country practice there. Research has shown that rural areas already have more residents 65 and older (19%) than urban areas (15%), and that share is growing.
Researchers expect the percentage of older people in rural communities to grow by more than 40% by 2034, making the disparities in care a larger concern. In many cases, if a community has a primary care physician, it may still lack a cardiologist, a dentist, or a surgeon.
At East Tennessee State University, the Quillen College of Medicine in Johnson City, Tennessee, is already ranked by U.S. News & World Report as No. 2 medical school in the country for graduates serving underserved communities. To combat the specialist shortage, the school said it is expanding its class size and focusing on surgical practice and research tailored for rural settings.
Dr. Bill Block, dean of the Quillen College of Medicine and ETSU’s Vice President for Clinical Affairs, said the programs were designed with rural practitioners and patients in mind.
“Our surgical residency is designed specifically to prepare physicians for practice in rural and underserved communities, where access to subspecialists is often limited,” Block wrote in an email response to the Daily Yonder. “In urban settings, surgeons typically have immediate support from a range of specialty colleagues and large health systems. In rural areas, general surgeons must be prepared to manage a broader scope of cases independently.”
Read the full article about medical schools in rural communities by Liz Carey at The Daily Yonder.