We are pumped that A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona‘s (ATSU-SOMA’s) work to foster the primary care workforce of tomorrow has been recognized. The university has received a $1,999,650 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) [view press release here]. The funding, which will be distributed over five years, will support an innovative primary care fellowship for physicians and physician assistants, strengthening the health care workforce in underserved communities nationwide.

ATSU-SOMA has a national track record in curricular innovation and a mission to serve vulnerable populations. NACHC has a strong and longstanding relationship with the university and collaborates on strategies to build up the primary care workforce at Community Health Centers, such as the Hometown Scholars program, which trains exceptional medical and dental students who are committed to serving at their local health center. A group of ATSU-SOMA students, faculty and staff also recently dropped by the NACHC Community Health Institute which took place earlier this week in Orlando, FL.

“The grant will advance the training of practicing primary care physicians and physician assistants in the areas of leadership, team-based integrated health care, quality improvement, population health, social determinants of health, health policy, and health education – all components of health systems, and all elements of health care delivery we want our students to understand and practice,” says Jeffrey Morgan, DO, FACOI, CS, Dean of ATSU-SOMA. “Our medical students, whose training is embedded in CHCs and the communities served by CHCs, will be the direct beneficiaries of this focused education in the science of health systems.”