Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Rural Residency Planning and Development Program - Abstract Headers Eligible Entity/Facility Type: Rural Graduate Medical Education Consortium headed by Allopathic Medical School Project Director: Lillian Rivera, MD, FAAP Rural Residency Program Directors: Psychiatry Residency: Kris Lampon, MDFamily Medicine Residency:Malynie Blanco,MD Program Pathway: General Primary Care and High Need Pathway Residency Residency Specialty Area(s): Psychiatry Rural Residency; Family Medicine Residency Format (s) Family Medicine: Separately Accredited Rural Track Program (ACGME RTP Type 1) Psychiatry: New Rural Track Program (ACGME RTP Type 2) Sponsoring Institution Organization & Location: Tiber Health Public Benefit Corporation d/b/a Ponce Health Sciences University, Ponce, Puerto Rico 00716 Rural Target Areas: Coamo, Jayuya. Salinas, Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico Funding Amount Requested:$750,000.00; Program Sustainability Option(s): Options 3 and 4 Projected Total Number of Residents: 28 Residents Expected ACGME Accreditation and Matriculation Dates:ACGME Accreditation:AY 2026;Matriculation: AY 2027 Summary Ponce Health Sciences University School of Medicine (PHSU-SOM), an allopathic medical school serves as the leading entity for a rural graduate medical education consortium to establish the first HRSA-funded Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program for Puerto Rico. The proposed RRPD will seek to establish two ACGME-accredited Rural Track Programs (RTPs): a Rural Psychiatry Residency as an expansion of PHSU’s existing Psychiatry Residency with the VA Medical Center, and a new Rural Family Medicine Residency to be developed with Damas Hospital in Ponce. The RRPD curriculum and clinical training will be designed based on a Rural Patient-Centered Medical Home model in which integrates psychiatry and family medicine to optimize rural patient-centered clinical care. According to HRSA, all rural counties in Puerto Rico are designated as Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs) and Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) for behavioral health and Primary Care. The proposed RRPD will create a new rural residency positions in the target area of FORH counties located in the Southern Region of Puerto Rico. This Region area has suffered from the impact of major hurricanes, earthquakes, the pandemic and the impact of physicians and health professional exodus from the island to the US mainland. The RRPD’s will allow residents to develop skills working with rural communities, their social vulnerabilities and determinants of health, with over 50% of the training occurring in rural clinical sites. It is the goal of the program to create to increase the supply of specialists continue serving rural communities upon graduation, consistent with national studies showing high post-graduation retention by graduates of rural-centric residency training programs. The RRPD’s sustainability plan contemplates support from the Puerto Rico Department of Health, VA Health System, GME Medicare funding, and institutional investments from PHSU.
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