ATSU partnership helps establish Washington, D.C.’s first residency and medical training community campus
Posted: May 8, 2013
Representatives of A.T. Still University (ATSU), and partners Unity Health Care, Inc., of Washington, D.C., and The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education (WCGME) of Scranton, Pa., celebrated the establishment of the District of Columbia’s first residency and medical training community campus in late April. Approximately 80 guests gathered at Unity’s Upper Cardozo Health Center in the Nation’s Capital to learn how the partners’ collaborative training effort may help offset the nation’s pressing health care challenges as a result of the Affordable Care Act – the shortage of primary care physicians trained to work with underserved populations and the changes in federal funding for medical training.
Unity Health Care’s President and CEO Vincent Keane welcomed guests and provided remarks alongside ATSU President Craig M. Phelps, DO, ’84 and ATSU-SOMA Dean Kay Kalousek, DO, as well as representatives of WCGME, Unity Health Care, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), and special guest speaker, DC Mayor Vincent Gray.
Unity’s community campus will provide medical school and residency training for osteopathic physicians who will work predominantly in a primary care setting. Beginning July 2013, Unity Health Care will begin training ten medical students who will complete years two through four of their medical education at the community campus, and train six family practice residents within their network of community health centers (CHCs) through a ground breaking medical training program in partnership with ATSU-SOMA and WCGME.
“This is a magnificent place for patients to be treated, and we are looking forward to the partnership,” said Craig Phelps, DO, president of ATSU. “We really believe that is where health care has to be headed if we are going to take care of the unprecedented need and demand that is coming.”
The innovative family residency program is funded through a federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and will place 87 graduates over three years in Community Health Centers around the country, including at Unity Health Centers in D.C. The program signals a focus on addressing the primary care physician shortage trained to work in underserved areas through “homegrown recruitment strategies for medical education and residency programs.” Not only is the program addressing current and future shortages in primary care, but it will also encourage local students to become primary care physicians who practice within their home communities.
Vincent Keane, Unity Health Care president and CEO, stated, “For years, Unity’s leadership has dreamed of creating a residency and medical training program, which would be tailored specifically to serve the unique needs of the medically underserved. Today, with the assistance of our partners, that dream is being realized in the District of Columbia.”
Additional photos from the event are available on ATSU’s Facebook page.