"Doctors for the People": Training physicians to work in underserved communities

Introduction: Communities with larger number of primary care physicians show better health outcomes and lower health disparities. Yet there are a variety of barriers keeping physicians from practicing in working class/minority neighborhoods. Key among them is the low number of medical school graduates from working class and minority backgrounds. In response, diverse physician training programs have been created to increase the supply of physicians for underserved communities.

Methods: This study will examine the experience of medical training programs that have a core commitment to train doctors to work in poor and underserved communities and/ or preferentially admit students from working class and minority backgrounds. The study will be based on both a review of the literature and interviews with key informants. Typical of the programs included in the review are: the Sophie Davis Medical School of CUNY, the Latin American Medical School in Havana and the Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center.

Results: Our results will focus on: 1) how and why such programs are created; 2) how they are financed and how much they cost students; 3) educational philosophy; 4) curriculum; 5) recruitment and retention policies; 6) methods to evaluate long term success of graduates and the program; 7) relationship to more traditional training programs, 8) barriers and successes.

Discussion: It is hoped that the lessons learned from these programs may inform public policy and pedagogy with respect to barriers to careers in health and the need for promoting diversity among the healthcare workforce.