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Upstate's Rural Medical Education program celebrates 25th anniversary, with visit to Oswego Health

Upstate's Rural Medical Education program celebrates 25th anniversary, with visit to Oswego Health

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Upstate Medical University and its Family Medicine Department are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Upstate’s Rural Medical Education program, better known as RMED.

RMED was introduced by the Department of Family Medicine in 1989 with a goal of alleviating the state’s ongoing shortage of physicians who practice general medicine in New York’s rural communities. In the ensuing years, 215 students have graduated from this program that has proved successful in providing primary care and specialty physicians for rural practice.

“Third-year medical students at Upstate who opt for the course are placed in rural communities full-time for 19 or 36 consecutive weeks,” said RMED Director James L. Greenwald, M.D.  “In this setting, they live, work and learn under the supervision of board-certified family physicians and other specialists. Throughout the years, after receiving their medical degrees, many of these students have chosen to practice rural medicine, and, some are now serving as RMED preceptors.”

To mark the 25th anniversary, RMED faculty and staff recognized Oswego Health, one of the program’s longest and strongest supporters, in a ceremony Sept. 15. Oswego Health has supported the RMED program since 1990 and has hosted 22 students since.

 

“The students that come to our hospital through the RMED program are training to provide a high quality of health care,” said Ann C. Gilpin, president and chief executive officer of Oswego Health.“The best reward is when an RMED participant comes back to practice here. Smaller centers are sometimes forgotten when doctors choose where to practice, but this program helps keep them top of mind with talented, well-educated physicians.”

The RMED program recently captured the learning experiences of its students-- from the students themselves-- through photographs and vignettes, as part of the program’s Student Photo Research Project.

The study’s principal investigator, Carrie Roseamelia, who serves as associate director of the RMED program, said that the findings showed that students felt appreciated, part of the (medical) team, and were given unparallel learning opportunities.

“They experienced the true essence of continuity of care as they followed patients from the clinic, into surgery, to the hospital floors, and later back in the clinic resulting in a depth of patient/student interactions and understanding. They said that continuity of family care, including extended families was not unusual. This type of experience is invaluable to those training for the medical profession.”

“I’m from a small community and I want to practice in one,” said Jessica Wilkins, who did her undergraduate studies at LeMoyne College before coming to Upstate. “Practicing in this type of center gives me the opportunity to see all kinds of patients. You do a little of everything and stay ready to treat a wide range of cases.”

 

For more information about the RMED program, contact Carrie Roseamelia at roseamec@upstate.edu.

RMED Facts

- Upstate’s RMED students are four times more likely to practice in a rural setting and five times more likely to work in rural New York than their peers.

- Seventy percent of the RMED students go into primary care (mostly family practice) and the remainder into specialties or non-clinical practice.

- RMED’s specialty graduates are equally likely to work in a rural setting as primary care RMED graduates.

- One in five students end up practicing in an RMED community; one in 10 students go back into practice in the same community where they completed their RMED training.

- Forty-one of the graduates who have completed residency training in the last 10 years are in practice in Upstate New York, about half are in rural communities.

- Oswego is presently one of 20 communities across New York selected to participate in the RMED program. The others are Potsdam, Waterloo and Watkins Glen. This program allows students to spend up to nine months in the field of rural and community medicine while completing their required studies.

- Thomas Wolff, MD, was the founder and first director of the program. Peter Beatty, PhD, oversaw the program until 2012.

- Barb Michaelis was the first RMED student at Oswego Health beginning the program on Jan. 15, 1990. She worked with Drs. Varnum and Nupuf as her preceptors.

Caption: Oswego Health was recognized Sept. 15 by Upstate Medical University for participating in the Rural Medical Education Program for the past 25 years. The program provides medical students with first hand learning experiences with local physicians. At the presentation seated, from left, are James Greenwald, MD, Upstate professor of family medicine and director of Upstate’s Rural Medical Education RMED Program, Ann C. Gilpin, Oswego Health president and CEO, and David Duggan, MD, Upstate senior vice president and dean of the College of Medicine. Standing, from left, are Robert Bucher, Oswego Hospital nursing supervisor; Brian Coleman, coordinator of the Rural Health Network of Oswego County; Eva Gregory, MD, RMED site coordinator; Carrie Roseamelia, RMED coordinator; Jessica Wilcox, RMED Student; Adam Gagas, Secretary, Oswego Health Board of Directors; Daniel Dey, CEO of Northern Oswego County Health Services Inc.; Renato Mandanas, Oswego Health chief medical officer; Jerry Emmons, MD, Oswego Health director of emergency services and former RMED student; William Clark, Oswego Health board president and Jeff Coakley, Oswego Health vice president for strategic services.’

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