Minnesota's Future Doctors has been in the media.
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Future Doctors on Crossroads with host Sheletta Brundidge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rF11DIzew______
New Program Preps Future Doctors
The first-year biochemistry student said the tension and unstable government of her native country, Ethiopia, causes dismal access to health care.
"There is one doctor to thousands of people," she said. "We have a lot of people dying from preventable diseases. It's really saddening."
Idossa's one of the 27 students accepted into this year's Minnesota's Future Doctors program.
The two-year-old program was developed by two past University medical students to encourage more minorities, including those who were in foster care and refugee camps in war-torn countries, and others who've experienced homelessness, to enter the medical field.
Idossa said she hopes to go to medical school and help those without adequate health care around the world get the care they need.
Of the 945 students enrolled in the University's medical schools in Duluth and the Twin Cities, 182 are students of color, according to the Academic Health Center.
Underserved and diverse communities in Minnesota were inspiration to launch the program, program director Jo Peterson said.
She added that students' experiences were a factor in their selection.
"A number of students come from foster care - a lot of young people who have been through war situations and then had to relocate to the United States as very young children," she said.
The privately funded program accepted students from colleges and universities across the state and costs $500,000 a year to run.
Lucas Reece, a Guyanese University student selected to the three-summer program, said the patient-doctor ratio is generally unbalanced and he hopes to change that.
"There are more ethnic patients than ethnic doctors," he said.
Reece's experience as a camp counselor in urban Philadelphia last summer inspired him to continue working with inner-city communities after graduating medical school.
"The diversity of (doctors) should reflect the population," he said. "Otherwise, you start to see a specific image of how a doctor should look."
Those who applied for the program needed to be undergraduate first-year students with an interest in science and medicine.
The program takes place at both the University's Medical School and the Mayo medical school in Rochester.
Students will shadow doctors, visit hospitals and clinics, research case studies and do community service.
Peterson said she hopes half the students attend medical school, but encourages them to pursue careers of their choice.
"If they found something else through their travels that they're more interested in," she said, "I want them to pursue that."
Minnesota's Future Doctors Program Selects Students for Program's Second Year
(April 7, 2008) -- Twenty-seven highly talented, hardworking students were recently selected for the Minnesota’s Future Doctors program, a program created by the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Mayo Medical School that aims to increase minority, immigrant, and rural physicians.
Designed to generate a pipeline of future doctors for the state, Minnesota’s Future Doctors was developed in response to a concern that practicing physicians and medical school students do not reflect the diversity of Minnesota communities. Two University of Minnesota Medical School students noticed this disparity in their classrooms and initiated the Minnesota’s Future Doctors program to address this inequality.
Now in its second year, the program aims to equip high-potential minority and disadvantaged students with the skills necessary to become successful undergraduate students, in turn making them strong applicants for medical school.
“These fantastic young people are the whole package, the type of student we want and need in our medical schools if we are to prepare the next generation of physicians who can relate to the increasingly diverse population in our state,” said Jo Peterson, Ph.D., director of the program.
All participants have completed their freshman year at a Minnesota college, have demonstrated exceptional academic aptitude, and were highly recommended by faculty members. The students will spend six weeks this summer at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, the Mayo Clinic, and Duluth Hospital learning about clinical care and research. Program participants will create electronic portfolios, tour the campuses, take biology courses, and learn what it means to serve different ethnic populations as a physician by University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic professionals.
The same cohort of students will return to the program each summer for three years to further develop their portfolios, prepare for the MCAT exam, and refine their medical school applications and interview techniques. The ultimate goal of the program is not only to prepare exceptional medical school applicants, but to encourage these students to remain in Minnesota.
The students represent minority, rural, and immigrant groups, as well as economically disadvantaged and first-generation college students. Patient consumer studies find that persons of color and immigrants prefer doctors who share their language, culture, and religion. Peterson notes that the students’ personal experiences will allow them to relate to patients of similar backgrounds and be role models in their communities.
Minnesota's Future Doctors Program Receives $1 Million Gift
Anonymous donation sustains educational vision
MINNEAPOLIS/ROCHESTER, Minn. (Feb. 28, 2008) -- Minnesota’s Future Doctors program, a collaboration between the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic medical schools, has received an anonymous donation of $1 million to support its highly qualified and under-resourced students who want to become tomorrow’s doctors.
The gift—$500,000 each to the Minnesota Medical Foundation and to Mayo Clinic—demonstrates the generosity and vision of its anonymous benefactors, who believe in education and its ability to transform the future. Their gift supports and encourages the success of an innovative new program known as Minnesota’s Future Doctors.
Minnesota’s Future Doctors was developed in response to a concern that practicing physicians and medical school students do not reflect the diversity of Minnesota communities. Two University of Minnesota Medical School students noticed this disparity in their classrooms and initiated the Minnesota’s Future Doctors program to address this inequality. The goal of the program is to equip high-potential minority, rural, and economically under-resourced students with the skills necessary to become successful undergraduate students, in turn making them strong applicants for medical school. When the program is at full capacity in 2009, it will serve 150 students.
“These fantastic young people are the whole package, the type of student we want and need in our medical schools if we are to prepare the next generation of physicians who can relate to the increasingly diverse population in our state,” said Jo Peterson, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, director of the program.
“This generous $1 million gift will help us maintain the program’s momentum and continue to reach talented students across the state who might otherwise consider medical school beyond their reach.”
The first class of Minnesota’s Future Doctors began its three-summer program last summer by spending six at the University of Minnesota Medical School; University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview; and, Mayo Clinic learning about clinical care and research. Program participants created electronic portfolios, took biology and chemistry courses, and learned what it means to serve different ethnic populations by shadowing community-based, University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic physicians.
This first cohort will return to the program over the next two summers, first at the Mayo Clinic campus and then at the University campus. They will further develop their portfolios, prepare for the Medical College Admission Test, and refine their medical school applications and interview techniques. The program’s goal is not only to prepare exceptional medical school applicants, but ultimately to encourage these students to remain in the state as practicing medical professionals.
“Our measure of success is a simple one—we want the students in Minnesota’s Future Doctors to be competitive applicants for medical school,” explained Barbara Porter, administrator, Mayo Medical School. “Ideally, we want them to compete favorably for appointments to Mayo Medical School or the University of Minnesota Medical School. They are outstanding young people and with the various components of the program, their chances for success are excellent.”
The students represent minority, rural, and immigrant groups, as well as economically disadvantaged and first-generation college students. Studies of health care consumers find that persons of color and immigrants prefer doctors who share their language, culture, and religion. Peterson notes that the students’ personal experiences will allow them to relate to patients of similar backgrounds and be role models in their communities.
Wanda Vue is one of 23 students in the inaugural class. The only girl in her Hmong family of six children, she became interested in medicine in ninth grade, when she started accompanying her dad to the doctor for his diabetes treatment. She is grateful for the Minnesota’s Future Doctors Program because “it provides me with a straight path instead of me having to zigzag my way to goals.”
Homeroom University Of Minnesota / Med school buddies innovate to motivate
New program puts students of color, or low income, or from outstate on a track to become Minnesota Future Doctors
BY PAUL TOSTO
Pioneer Press
Gareth Forde and Matt Fitzpatrick met on the first day of medical school at the University of Minnesota and began talking almost immediately about how to bring better health care to people of color and low-income communities.
Then, their talk turned to action. The best way, they thought, to meet the disparities in health care was to train more students as doctors and then have them return to their neighborhoods and hometowns. Even with the immense pressures of medical school and life (Forde has two small children), they found time and energy to pull together a plan and line up support, not just at the U but at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
"We thought we needed to create a pipeline of students from underrepresented groups," said Forde. That meant not only students of color but people from rural and low-income areas. "What students were lacking was something that had continuity, that took them from the beginning and delivered them beyond the doorsteps of medicine."
The payoff for those efforts came earlier this year when the first class of 23 college students entered the Minnesota Future Doctors program. The students, all undergrads interested in becoming doctors and serving Minnesota, spent six weeks this summer learning about medical school and being mentored.
They'll have the chance to spend two more summers getting ready to apply to medical school, laying the groundwork for their future success.
Forde, 32, and Fitzpatrick, 34, now fourth-year medical school students, were crucial to the program's birth, officials said. Forde, who had also helped organize a 2005 conference on health disparities, won a student leadership award from the U in the spring.
"We started talking about the need for tuition (aid) and mentorship," Fitzpatrick recalled. "We kind of sat down and came up with the idea of trying to develop a pipeline program ... the hope was to get college students who are fully capable of becoming great physicians but who don't have the guidance."
Both men took different paths to reach similar conclusions.
Forde, a Floridian, lived three years in Mississippi, where the health needs of people far outstripped the system's ability to help.
Fitzpatrick had worked for two years in poor areas of the Middle East, writing grant proposals and handling other nonmedical duties for health clinics.
"Having leaders in our community, physicians and others, is essential for young people. Creating a cadre of doctors that look like the real faces of Minnesotans is essential," said Jo Peterson, who oversees the Minnesota Future Doctors program. "I haven't ever met two people who had such a strong sense of right and wrong," she said of Forde and Fitzpatrick. "They knew that Minnesota needed to grow its own medical students who reflect the real Minnesota - minorities, immigrants, rural, economically challenged families." The pair, she said, knocked on the doors of top administrators at the Mayo and U medical schools.
"They stayed on top of their request until they felt that it received the proper attention. They continue to stay on top of the day-to-day runnings of the program and always offer excellent, critical insight on how the program should run, who should be accepted into the program and more."
Short-term, the goal is to see the first group of 23 all matriculate into medical school, said Forde.
Ultimately, Fitzpatrick said, the program will be judged by how many physicians it brings to underserved areas. Looking back, it would have been easy to let the idea end at a passionate conversation.
"At some point," Forde said, "you're going to realize you're waiting forever to make a difference. Let's do it now. The problem is now."
Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119.
Mixing it up for med school (From the StarTribune, June 14, 2007)
A new program hopes to diversify state medical schools by helping minority and rural students make it there.
Wearing surgical gloves, premedical students Georgette McCauley, second from left, and Susan Chhen examined a pig’s heart in one of the research units at the University of Minnesota Medical Center during a tour there. They are part of the Minnesota’s Future Doctors program.
As a recent immigrant from Kenya, premedical student Nancy Kinara has seen firsthand the difference between the United States and her native country when it comes to medical care and health awareness.
That's partly why she was recruited as one of 23 students for a new program sponsored by the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic medical schools, aimed at creating a pipeline of future doctors for the state.
"There are a lot of things that the [Kenyan] community needs to learn," said Kinara, 19, a University of Minnesota student and Fridley resident who came here with her family in 2004.
As immigrant communities in the state continue to grow, many health professionals say that they are concerned that practicing physicians and current medical school students do not represent the increasing diversity of Minnesota.
For example, while blacks made up 5 percent of Minnesota's population last year, only 1 percent of physicians and medical school students were of a similar ethnicity. At the same time, disparities across medical specialties -- as well as between urban and rural communities -- mean that the country will face an estimated deficit of 150,000 doctors by 2020.
The new educational program, called "Minnesota's Future Doctors," was launched this week and aims to engage highly motivated students from ethnic and underprivileged groups and from rural communities. Program supporters say they hope to introduce participants to working physicians, help them land spots in a Minnesota medical school and, ultimately, encourage them to remain in the state.
All of the students live in Minnesota and have just completed their first year at a college or university with an average grade point average of 3.5. Many of them are the first in their families to go to college, and almost all come from households that have incomes below the federal poverty line, said Jo Peterson, the program's director. They include rural residents, plus Hispanics, blacks, American Indians and Chinese, Thai, Hmong, Somali and Ethiopian immigrants.
The students' life experiences will allow them to relate to patients of similar backgrounds and be role models within their communities, she said.
"We just want them to have a solid emotional tie ... so when they are in a position to give back, they choose to give back in Minnesota," Peterson said.
Rural frustrations
Jonna Maas, a University of Minnesota, Morris, student, said many from her community in Walnut Grove, including her grandparents, are frustrated by a shortage of primary care doctors and by how quickly doctors come and go.
"We have a hard time keeping physicians," Maas said Wednesday, as she toured the campus of the U of M Medical Center with the other students. "I want to go back and practice in a small town."
The students will meet for six weeks for three consecutive summers to participate in medical case studies, shadow physicians in different specialties and prepare for the Medical College Admission Test and medical school interviews.
The medical schools cover the full cost of the program, which includes room and board, a $300 transportation stipend and a $1,650 salary for each student. Program costs this year are about $250,000, but will rise to more than twice that when the program reaches full capacity in 2009, including a less costly program during the academic year for promising students who were not accepted into the summer sessions.
Barbara Porter, assistant dean of student affairs at the Mayo Clinic Medical School, said one of the primary goals of the program is to ensure that all the participants have as many choices as possible as they enter medical school. While students will spend most of the first summer session at the University of Minnesota Medical School, they will spend a significant amount of time shadowing doctors at the Mayo Clinic in summer 2008.
"These are 23 of the best and brightest in Minnesota [but] some of these kids have never been to an institution like Mayo," Porter said. "It will be our job, the university and us, to help them make that leap from university to medical school."
Because many of the students are passionate about working with underserved communities in the future, some of them are likely to become primary care physicians, Peterson said. A looming shortage of practitioners in primary care -- which includes pediatrics and internal medicine -- is currently a major concern of Minnesota health care officials.
"I really want to be a pediatrician," said Kinara, who has a 6-month-old son, Jayden. "I've had the experience of being a young mom [and] I want to help people with the challenges that I've faced."
Bridging the divide
Minnesota's Future Doctors was the brainchild of two University of Minnesota Medical School students, Gareth Forde and Matt Fitzpatrick.
"I think a lot of it boils down to cultural competency," Forde said. "Patients oftentimes come in with their ... own beliefs about healing, which are very different from the beliefs we have here and from Western medicine in general. It can be difficult to bridge the gap."
At least one student had to face down obstacles to her medical ambitions within her own community and family. Muna Abdirahman, who is Somali, said her parents and grandparents encouraged her to become a nurse instead to avoid the extra time and cost of earning a medical degree. They ask her: "When are you going to settle down? When are you going to have kids?"
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Four Minnesota's Future Docs Volunteer at Goodwill/EasterSeals as a Part Summer Program
Service learning volunteer opportunities abound in Goodwill stores
Jonna Maas and Nou Chang volunteered at Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota and found the experience rewarding and enlightening.
In June and July of this year, four students from the University of Minnesota’s Future Doctors program volunteered at the Fairview Avenue Goodwill main office. They volunteered in a variety of areas, including conducting mock interviews for participants, organizing items in the Medical Equipment Loan program, providing computer lab assistance and merchandise preparation in the Fairview Avenue Goodwill store.
Here’s what Nou Chang had to say about her experience:
“Being at Goodwill felt like I was in the presence of angels; those who gave away their goods, those who help sort them and those behind the curtains doing the paper work make everything go smoothly,” said Nou Chang, a student in the Future Doctors program. “They are truly angels."
“Before my experience at Goodwill, I always thought Goodwill was a thrift shop and that was all. After being a volunteer at Goodwill, I got to see everything that it offered to the people from Equipment Loans to training classes for different workforce [groups] in society. Goodwill makes the world a better place.”
Another student, Jonna Maas, volunteered as a mock interviewer with Goodwill/Easter Seals participants. She spent time one-on-one with participants, asking them standard interview questions.
“I know I may never rid the world of poverty, or find the cure to cancer, but I know what I can do is just as important; I can share my knowledge with those who are less fortunate than I, using the abilities and tools I have been blessed with to improve the lives of others,” said Jonna. “I can make a difference, even if it is just one person at a time.”
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Health Care Labor Shortage: Fact or Fiction?
By Sally KaneSpecial to Minnesota 2020
Minnesota is on course for a health care workforce shortage never before seen in our state's history. A reported reduction in some job vacancies in 2004 and 2005 has led to speculation that health care workforce shortages are over. This is not true; in fact, it's worsening.
Minnesota's health care community is on a demographically induced collision course defined by an increase in retirees and fewer workers coupled with a growing demand for healthcare services. These in-demand services will be across-the-board, affecting almost all employment sectors in the healthcare field and all Minnesota communities.
What will this mean for rural Minnesota?
Rural Minnesota presents unique challenges for health care access. There is an ever-increasing shortage of medical personnel in rural areas, as well as transportation and distance barriers to care and an increasing economic destabilization of rural healthcare services. Since the mid-twentieth century, physicians have favored urban and suburban practices over rural areas.
"Many physicians often need lucrative practices to repay high education debts, and they have been trained to use costly new technologies in diagnoses and treatment," said Dr. Timothy Andersen, Owatonna Physician for Fairview Health Services.
Rural practices typically generate lower incomes for the physician and have fewer and older technology resources than urban and suburban locations.
"Modern medical school graduates are rarely well prepared to practice in rural environments. Consequently, rural communities suffer chronic physician shortages," Andersen added.
What is causing the workforce shortage problem?
Advances in medical technology, increasing costs, and market forces contribute to the economic destabilization of many rural health care systems. Small rural health care providers, especially hospitals, cannot afford the equipment and personnel necessary to treat the entire array of modern disease and injury. Coronary bypass surgery, artery repair, advanced trauma care, and other complex procedures require specialized medical teams, equipment, and facilities. Such resources are economically viable only in hospitals and surgical centers with high volumes of patients. Consequently, rural Minnesotans must travel great distances to access more costly and complex levels of care.
Over the last few years state cuts have been imposed on public healthcare programs and rates for long-term care services have been frozen. Without rate increases, most nursing homes have found it impossible to pay wages that are comparable to the other job opportunities causing a high turnover and vacancy rate. Additionally, cuts to Medical Assistance programs will cost hospitals approximately $67.9 million and create 34,000 more uninsured people in Minnesota. As the demand for healthcare professionals rises these restrictions will handicap the state's hospitals and long-term care providers in their ability to recruit and compensate the practitioners needed for their patients.
Decreased Access to Care
As the gap between supply and demand of health care professional services increases, Minnesotans will experience longer waiting periods and limited resources for patient care. When healthcare providers believe they do not have the services, they must limit access.
Today, both urban and rural hospitals increasingly divert ambulances because of patient capacity issues. Additionally, hospitals have difficulty discharging patients due to lack of resources.
The financial crisis in long-term care is especially real in greater Minnesota. Twenty nursing homes have closed their doors in the past five years. The impact is felt not just by Minnesota residents who must find new nursing homes, but also in the communities that lose jobs and economic vitality.
Identifying Solutions
With current estimates predicting that the number of minorities in Minnesota alone will double by the year 2020, the need for medical professionals who are committed to serving Minnesota's underserved population is great. Medical students from poor, rural or ethnic backgrounds-those who might be most apt to work and connect with minority patients - frequently are not afforded the best opportunities in medical education due to financial constraints.
Mayo Medical School recently partnered with the University of Minnesota in a remarkable initiative known as the Minnesota Future Doctors program. Currently in its early stages the program is aimed at creating a pipeline of future physicians for Minnesota by providing resources and financial support to medical students from less privileged backgrounds that want to serve the underserved.
"People in underserved communities are sometimes not aware of the health care services that are available to them," said Thuy Nguyen-Tran, University of Minnesota student and Minnesota Future Doctors participant. "Many of these people are new to Minnesota's healthcare system and policies. There are also large percentages of these patients without insurance. When they know the costs are going to be high, they will decide to not seek the care that is needed."
Meanwhile, by making more health care services available to rural and minority communities across the state, preventative care can prevent emergency room visits and expensive operations that drive health care costs up for everyone. Physician shortages are most visible in primary prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Public health systems and an array of alternative primary care providers often fill in the gaps. Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, or home-health nurses may provide primary care. Practice locations include publicly or charitably subsidized comprehensive primary-care centers or categorical service clinics (e.g., prenatal care, family planning, immunizations) situated in central locations, mobile clinics, and in patient's homes.
"Physicians serve as ambassadors to medicine and people in their communities. They are information givers that can help eliminate healthcare disparities that are facing rural and minority communities," Nguyen-Tran said.
Avoid Higher Health Care Costs and Limited Access to Quality Care
To avoid future crises in health care costs and access issues, Minnesota must prepare now to meet growing demands for health care services and take steps to build a high-functioning workforce to deliver those services.
There are no quick or easy solutions to this multi-faceted problem that has been building for years. The many partnerships identifying health care workforce development strategies are critical steps but if state policymakers continue to sidestep the problem, rural Minnesota, in particular, will find itself several key jobs short of adequate health care coverage.