New rural residency program addresses physician shortage
Grand Itasca Clinic & Hospital in Grand Rapids, Minn., is launching a new rural health care residency program in partnership with the University of Minnesota Medical School and Fairview Health. The Grand Itasca Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, recently approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, will train two new family medicine physicians annually. “This approval is an important step in building the program,” said Shailey Prasad, M.D., associate vice president for global and rural health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “Working with the team at Grand Itasca has been an amazing experience.”
The three-year residency will begin with one year of training at M Health Fairview Woodwinds Hospital in St. Paul, followed by two years of immersive rural practice at Grand Itasca. The program builds on Grand Itasca’s long-standing role in hosting the Rural Physician Associate Program students and aims to deepen the educational experience in Grand Rapids.
“We will be training the next generation of doctors in the unique challenges of rural primary care by fully integrating them into our local hospital,” said Tim Pehl, M.D., residency program director and family medicine physician at Grand Itasca. “Our community is extremely excited to grow this new program. It’s a meaningful investment in the future of rural healthcare.”