The University of Arizona and a hospital system in Yuma are partnering to establish the state’s first rural regional medical school branch.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix is working with Onvida Health to launch a three-year accelerated primary care degree program. The clinical training will be based at Onvida Health in Yuma.
College Dean Fredric Wondisford says the program plans to address a stark need in Arizona.
“The primary care physician shortage is even higher in rural communities. We thought that if we were going to expand our medical student class, which we will do, we wanted to do it in a rural location,” he said.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 70% of U.S. communities facing shortages of medical professionals are in rural areas.
Onvida CEO Robert Trenschel says the company will be providing nearly $33 million in full-tuition scholarships over eight years.
“Part of the reason people don't go into primary care is because of the debt burden they come out of medical school with so the opportunity to focus on primary care and have folks come out without any type of debt burden is beneficial,” he said.
The program is set to be introduced in July.
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