Date: April 26, 1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bonnie Aikman, PHS/HRSA (301) 443-3376

$1.5 Million Awarded to Five Medical Schools

The Health Resources and Services Administration today awarded $1.5 million to five medical schools as part of a five-year project to increase the number of the nation's primary care physicians.

The schools qualified as Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum demonstration sites by changing their curricula to graduate more generalist physicians trained in primary care. The five schools were selected through the second and final funding cycle of the Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum Demonstration Project.

The winning schools are Marshall University School of Medicine, Huntington, W.Va.; Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine, North Miami Beach, Fla.; University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.; University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Ill.; and University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt.

The curriculum project is an outgrowth of a plan developed by the Primary Care Organizations Consortium, a group charged with finding innovative ways to increase the number of primary care physicians. The consortium acts as an expert advisory panel to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, which is under a federal contract to administer the curriculum project.

In announcing the awards today, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala said, "Widespread access to primary care simply can't be achieved in America without more well-trained generalist physicians. These awards mean we are getting closer to that goal."

Each of the five medical schools will receive $100,000 per year for three years, during which time students at the selected schools will be exposed to the new curriculum prior to their third year of medical training.

"There are too many physicians practicing in sub-specialties today," said Philip R. Lee, M.D., assistant secretary for health and director of the Public Health Service. "These awards are based on the premise that more students will select generalist careers if they receive early exposure to training that emphasizes it."

"Although interest in primary care among medical students is rising slowly, it remains far below what is needed for our health care delivery system to be efficient, cost-effective and accessible," said HRSA Administrator Ciro V. Sumaya, M.D. "We will continue to work vigorously with health professions schools to assist in the redirection and expansion of primary care training programs."

In 1993, five medical schools were selected as demonstration sites. They were the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver; the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha; the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine; the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo; and Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk.

A team of physicians from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine will evaluate the 10 demonstration projects over a five-year period to identify what changes should be made in medical school curricula to encourage more students to choose primary care careers.

In the final year of the project, the award-winning medical schools including their faculty and student body will take part in a national workshop to share results with other medical schools throughout the nation.

HRSA is one of eight Public Health Service agencies within HHS.

Following is a list of the award recipients and a summary of the planned curricula:

• Marshall University School of Medicine, Huntington, West Virginia:

To develop a two-year preclinical Introduction to Patient Care (IPC) course and create a Generalist Education Resource Center to enhance faculty development and interdisciplinary teaching.

• Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine, North Miami Beach, Florida:

To establish a Mentor Network Program where students will be linked with primary care providers for office-based experiences and with physician administrators to learn about the business aspects of practicing primary care medicine in a managed care system.

• University of California, San Francisco:

To begin five new teaching activities that will consolidate four preclinical courses into a longitudinal clinical experience, reformat the first year Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, establish a new weekly Cardinal Symptom Clinical Problem Solving course and clinical skills curriculum for second year students and form a Generalist Careers Interest Group.

• University of Illinois at Chicago-College of Medicine:

To develop a two-year Introduction to Patient Care course that will combine the clinical and classroom generalist learning experiences based on family case scenarios.

• University of Vermont, Burlington:

To develop a generalist classroom curriculum that includes problem and preventive-based learning, an every-other-week generalist office experience, revise an existing Physicians in Society course to focus on the human issues that surround being a physician and develop a community resource project.

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