Program Addressing Physician Shortage Trains Largest Class in 13 Years

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas  Last month 163 Texas medical students took a major first step to counter the states physician shortage. The first- and second-year medical students shadowed internists to learn first-hand about the specialty under the General Internal Medicine Statewide Preceptorship Program (GIMSPP) a mentorship program with primary care physicians. Texas ranks behind nearly every state in the number of physicians per capita. The GIMSPP is one of many strategies to curtail the shortage of primary care physicians in Texas. Medical students receive training on the methodologies and daily routine of internal medicine practitioners a practice that is often anything but routine. This years GIMSPP hosted the largest class of students in 13 years. Students spent up to four weeks receiving personal instruction and supervision from primary care physicians. Almost half of students who completed the 2016 Preceptorship Program (42 percent) did so in a rural Texas community or health profession shortage area. I want students to build a formative understanding of what it means to practice on the front lines of medicine said Mark A. Farnie MD Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Internal Medicine & Pediatric Residency Program at UTHealth McGovern Medical School. Dr. Farnie has trained more than 30 medical students during his 15 years as a GIMSPP preceptor in Houston. This program goes a long way in getting those students committed to primary care before the next phase of their training residency starts. Studies show that medical students typically remain in the community where they receive training. By allowing students to deliver primary care to patients in a traditional doctors office early in their medical career the GIMSPP seeks to encourage them to pursue that practice specialty where Texas most needs them. By the fall of 2018 three new medical schools will open in Texas bringing hundreds of student enrollments. More medical students will mean more opportunities for student participation in the GIMSPP and potentially more primary care physicians in the state. Funding for the program which was restored by the 84th Texas Legislature is provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. ### To report on this story in full please contact Nicole Abbott Executive Director of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians (TXACP) atNicole.Abbott@texmed.org or visit www.txacp.org.