Value-Based Medical Student Education Training Program - Applicant Organization: Division of Rural and Community Programs, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Address: PO Box 70412, Johnson City, TN 37614-1709 Project Director: Thomas G. Kincer II, MD Contact Phone Numbers: 423-439-6758 (voice); 423-439-7720 (fax) E-mail Address: kincert@etsu.edu; Website: https://www.etsu.edu/com/ruralprograms/ Funds Requested: $3,350,908 in direct and indirect costs over 2 years and 9 months Funding Priority: Public and Private Partnerships Located in the underserved rural region of South Central Appalachia, East Tennessee State University-Quillen College of Medicine (Quillen) has maintained the mission of educating medical students to practice primary care in underserved rural communities. As a testament to success, Quillen ranked 5th in the nation for graduates practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas according to the 2024 US News and World Report, and over 50% of our graduates enter primary care residency programs. This is accomplished through focused efforts on recruitment of applicants meeting our mission, developing college pathway programs offering guaranteed acceptances for students from rural backgrounds, having a dedicated four-year Rural Primary Care Track, a three-year track into our primary care residencies, and a curriculum for all students that requires dedicated patient care in rural and underserved communities. Workforce projections show Tennessee will have a primary care physician shortage of 38% by 2035. To combat that prediction Quillen plans to increase the medical student class size by 25% by 2026. Accomplishing our goals and upholding our mission necessitates a need to expand our current programs, create new relationships with rural healthcare practices, hire and develop additional faculty and staff, potentially create a regional campus in a rural community, and consider expansion of our primary care residencies. Tribal, Rural, Underserved Education Expansion, TRUEE, will expand existing primary care curriculum, incorporate students from tribal nations into our college pathway program, increase student placement at regional free and charitable clinics partner with one of the largest rural primary care organizations in Tennessee to create additional clinical training sites and develop a regional medical campus, and offset the cost of tuition for students from economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds by creating tuition and medical Spanish scholarships. To meet the program objectives, we will accomplish and evaluate the following project objectives: Expand existing medical student curriculum to address the tribal, rural, and underserved populations in Tennessee, including the Rural Primary Care Track, Tri-TRAILS, and Underserved Medicine Clerkship; Recruit undergraduate students from tribal, rural and underserved communities to QCOM through the expansion of the EQUIP program (Extending Quillen to the Underserved through an Integrated Program); Engage medical students interested in practicing primary care in tribal, rural, and underserved communities through involvement in state and national rural and primary care conferences, student interest groups, tuition scholarships, and residency Match support; and Expand and enhance the network of rural and underserved clinical training sites, including establishing new clinical sites for medical student rotations. We are leaders in educating future primary care physicians for Tennessee and the South Central Appalachian region, especially those desiring to practice in underserved rural communities. Community partners, particularly our free and charitable clinics, provided letters of support to help us accomplish the class expansion and accommodate the increased need for more clinic experiences. Already having the infrastructure in place, proven successes and a dedicated goal of expansion make us a prime candidate for this funding.
