of University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences We are celebrating 50 years in response to the state’s urgent need for more doctors for small towns and rural communities suffering from severe shortages of healthcare.
Founded in 1972 by Dr. William R. Willard, the university’s first dean, CCHS turned to the specialty of family medicine.
“In many ways, this was the most difficult job I ever had…because we were trying to train a new type of doctor, a family doctor,” Willard said in 1979’s Point in In an interview with Question. Produced by UA Television. “But at the same time, I think there is an opportunity to make a big impact on an important social issue, health care in small towns and rural areas, so I think this is more challenging but I think he will be one.”
CCHS has done just that since it opened its doors 50 years ago. The university will educate thousands of medical students and resident physicians, create programs to recruit and mentor rural Alabama high school and college students who are interested in medicine and wish to practice in their hometowns or similar communities, and increase the population. Added postgraduate degree program in health. Community and Rural Health.
of Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program Graduated from 527 primary care physicians. More than half of our graduates remain in Alabama to practice, and about half practice in rural areas of the state. In fact, one of his seven practitioners in Alabama has graduated from the residency. CCHS also develops fellowships through residencies to provide family physicians with additional training in behavioral health, emergency medicine, geriatrics, hospital medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, and sports medicine.
An important CCHS initiative in the 1990s was the creation of a series of programs. Rural Health Leader Pipeline, recruits and develops high school and college students from rural Alabama who wish to return home or return to similar communities to practice medicine. To date, hundreds of students have participated in these programs, many of whom now work as doctors and other health care providers in rural Alabama. The college also Institute of Rural Health 2001.
Related: New program at University of Alabama prepares premed students for rural healthcare
Universities build community medicine, university medical center, which is currently the largest in West Alabama located in Tuscaloosa, Northport, Demopolis, Fayette, Carrollton, and Livingston.recently formed university Capstone Hospitalist Groupthe doctor takes care of the inpatient DCH Regional Medical Center Tuscaloosa and Northport Medical Center.
Together with Capstone Hospitalist Group, UA Student Health Center and Pharmacythe university’s medical practice recorded about 250,000 patient visits last year.
CCHS Dean and Family Physician Dr. Richard Friend said: “Going forward, we are committed to making even greater differences in medical student education and residency, patient care, and the translation of research and discovery to improve health in Alabama and the Southeast.”
This story was originally University of Alabama website.
