New Program Strives to Bridge Rural Health Care Gap

First-year medical student Haley Masterson grew up in Riley County, Kansas, and understands firsthand the challenges of delivering rural health care. “When you have eight people per square mile, you see a different kind of medicine,” she says.

Her brother’s rare illness required hours of driving each week to consult with specialists and family practitioners. “Because I grew up in an underserved county, I have a lot of interest in pursuing rural medicine,” says Masterson, a University of Kansas graduate. “I am interested in different health care models.”

On Aug. 27, she began her medical training at the College of Physicians and Surgeons , receiving her medical coat and taking the Hippocratic oath in Columbia’s annual White Coat Ceremony.

Hers won’t be the standard medical school curriculum, however. Among the more than 160 women and men starting their first year this fall, 10, including Masterson, make up the first class of students in the new Columbia-Bassett program.

Created by P&S and its upstate clinical affiliate, Bassett Healthcare, the program is designed to address the shortage of rural physicians and train doctors capable of leading health systems that promote both quality and cost-effective care.

Columbia-Bassett students will spend their first 18 months learning the basic science curriculum with the rest of their classmates in Upper Manhattan, but their clinical training for the following two and a half years will be based at Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, N.Y.

“This program provides two unique learning experiences,” says Ronald Drusin (P&S’66), vice dean for education at P&S. “The mission of the College of Physicians and Surgeons is to develop future leaders in patient care, research, education and policy. The Bassett campus provides students with learning opportunities in a rural setting with an emphasis on long-term patient relationships.”

Columbia-Bassett students will manage the long-term care of individual patients, following them in ambulatory clinics and the hospital. They also will learn about hospital finance, risk management, patient safety, quality improvement and medical informatics—the use of technology for such things as electronic medical records and health care information systems. These subjects are not part of the usual medical school curriculum. “In this new era of medical education, physician training is not just about medicine and science,” says Henry Weil (P&S’86), Columbia’s assistant dean for education at Bassett Healthcare. Weil says the goal is to turn out skilled clinicians who are passionate about patient care and responsible managers of the health care system.

More than 750 applicants applied for the 10 spots open in this year’s Columbia-Bassett class.

One of them is Blake Alberts, who turned down a seat at the University of South Dakota’s medical school to join the inaugural class. He saw the opportunity to attend a top medical school and see medical care delivery in a hospital with a mission similar to that of South Dakota hospitals. He plans to practice medicine in South Dakota.

“Bassett has the same mission but is 180 degrees opposite in how it approaches health care,” says Alberts. “That’s the biggest thing I’m excited about: being able to see a different approach to health care is invaluable.”

While some medical schools focus on preparing primary care physicians and others on preparing specialists, few have tried to do both in a combined urban-rural setting.

“This may be the demonstration model for a much-needed new paradigm,” says Dr. Lee Goldman, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia.

—by CUMC News

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