1. Name of Training Program: Tahlequah Medical Group Internal Medicine Residency Program 2. Discipline of Residency Program: Internal Medicine 3. Type of Application: Expansion 4. Eligible Entity Type: GME Consortium 5. Year Program First Began Training Residents: 2012 6. Organizational Website: https://alwaysnhs.org/internal-medicine-residency-program 7. Brief Overview: The Osteopathic Medical Education Consortium of Oklahoma (OMECO) successfully implemented a THC funded Internal Medicine Residency Program in 2012. The program utilizes an ambulatory clinic, Tahlequah Medical Group, located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Tahlequah Medical Group will have academic and financial responsibility for the proposed program expansion through a subcontract with OMECO. Tahlequah Medical Group (TMG) provides primary medical care for rural Cherokee County and multiple surrounding counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Cherokee County has a population that is approximately 36.4% American Indian (AI) and is a designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) with a score of 18, a designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA), and Medically Underserved Population (MUP) for low income as 22% of the population live below the federal poverty level. Cherokee County has higher rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and opioid misuse than both state and national averages. TMG provides high quality, affordable, primary healthcare with a specialization in internal medicine to all populations in the northeastern Oklahoma service area, including the predominately American Indian (AI) population. The Cherokee Nation has used the TMG Internal Medicine residency program as an important physician recruitment tool and has hired 9 of its 26 graduates. The TMG IM residency program is part of a comprehensive health professions training pipeline recently established in Tahlequah that includes an Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and the first tribally located Medical School, Oklahom
a State University College of Osteopathic Medicine-Cherokee Nation. Comprehensive data regarding the practice pattern of graduates has been collected for previous graduates and will continue to be collected for annual reporting and research. Data collected includes: physician specialty choice; practice location; practice type (e.g., employed physician, private practice, group practice, etc.); and practice characteristics (e.g., location in a Health Professional Shortage Area and/or a Medically Underserved Area, inter-professional practice experiences, patient payer source information, etc.). 8. Total FTE Positions Requested to be Funded for All Years: 21 (7-7-7) residents per year or 84 total residents. 9. FTE Positions Requested to be Funded for AY 2022-2023: 21 (7-7-7) residents