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1994.04.15 : HRSA Awards $1.5 Million to Five Schools

Contact:  Public Health Service/HRSA
Friday, April 15, 1994                  Patricia Campbell/
                                        Shelly Burgess (HRSA)
                                        (301) 443-3376


     HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced the award of
$1.5 million to five medical schools that have agreed to change
their curricula to graduate more generalist physicians to provide
primary care.

     The Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum Project awardees
are: 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.

     Secretary Shalala said, "I am delighted to announce these
awards today because we need to have more medical students selecting
primary care careers. You can't ensure access to primary care, as
health care reform promises, if well-trained generalist physicians
aren't available."

     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 during or prior to their
second year of medical training. 

     "The problem today is that we have too many physicians
practicing in specialties and subspecialties other than primary
care," said Philip R. Lee, M.D., assistant secretary for health and
director of the U.S. Public Health Service. "These awards are based 
on the premise that more students will select primary care careers
if they receive early exposure to it."  

     The opportunity for these five schools to demonstrate new
methods of educating medical students in primary care is an
outgrowth of a project developed by the Primary Care Organizations'
Consortium, which is charged with seeking innovative ways to
increase the number of medical students who become primary care
physicians.

     The consortium is an expert advisory panel to its contractor,
the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Kansas City, Mo.

     In March 1993, the contractor was awarded $2.8 million to carry
out the IGC Project which includes the selection of five schools of
medicine as demonstration sites.  The contractor is funded by the
Division of Medicine in the Health Resources and Services
Administration's Bureau of Health Professions.


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     The project will include ongoing evaluations to determine what
processes must take place in medical schools to make significant
changes in student attitudes toward primary care careers.  The
schools, faculty and students will participate in ongoing evaluation
processes that will culminate in a national workshop at the end of
the five-year project.

     HRSA is an agency of the U.S. Public Health Service within HHS.

     Award recipients and a summary of planned curriculum changes
follow:

     University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colo.:  To
develop and implement a lengthy generalist curriculum for the first
and second years of medical school.

     University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha, Neb.:  To
establish a concentrated interdisciplinary introduction program on
generalist care which will be overseen by a generalist coordinating
council.

     University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine, Madison,
Wis.:  To expand their existing community-oriented pilot program to
reach all students with full involvement of the primary care
disciplines.

     Medical College of Ohio at Toledo:  To start a new Introduction
to Primary Care curriculum in the second school year, combined with
a number of restructured curricular activities such as experiences
in community-based health centers, group discussions and workshops.

     Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Va.: To provide a
lengthy experience for all students in generalist medicine with a
new primary care preceptorship experience in the second year.


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