Boonshoft School of Medicine | Photo by Cheyenne Waddell | Edited by Jessica Fugett | The Wright State Guardian
Wright State University’s Rural Family Medicine Residency program will welcome its first cohort of three residents beginning in 2023 with funds from government grant.
Rural family medicine
In 2020, the Health Resources Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded a grant to the WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine. The Rural Residency Planning and Development Program grant, a value of $750,000, provided funds to establish a new residency program in rural family medicine.
The WSU BSoM was the only grant recipient in the state of Ohio, according to the HRSA grant awards database.
According to Dr. Carlos Menendez, program director of the rural family medicine residency, the residency program that Wright State and Greenville establishes will be the only rural family medicine residency in the state.
The HRSA grant is an ongoing program, meaning that other parties in Ohio could apply and start other rural residency programs in family medicine as well as other practices.
Menendez, a family medicine practitioner, explained that the family medicine program trains residents in an “all-encompassing” speciality covering maternity care through geriatrics; the rural program will specifically address needs for rural communities.
“There’s a lot of areas that are considered deserts, medical care deserts,” Menendez said. “The other issue is we’re seeing a lot of physicians getting older. So, a lot of us are nearing retirement age, and so it would be helpful to replace a lot of us that are retiring soon.”
The first cohort
Since 2020, WSU has been working to make this plan a reality and is now ready to welcome the first cohort of residents to the program in 2023, according to Menendez.
Three residents will be accepted into the program in its first year. Menendez explained that 94 prospects have already applied as of Nov. 29.
According to the program website, residents in the three-year program will spend the first year in Dayton studying in WSU’s Family Medicine Residency program. Students will spend the second and third years on rotations at Family Health in the rural community of Greenville.
Menendez also shared some other opportunities in the field of rural medicine, both in residency and for those still in medical school.
“I believe other residency programs do offer electives where a resident can choose to spend in a rural area,” Menendez said. “A similar opportunity is present for medical students as they go through medical school, spending time with a rural family practitioner.”
Menendez said that the program coordinators are looking forward to residents applying to the program. The director encouraged anyone interested in the program to reach out at 937-548-3806.
