The grant will fund a project called Primary Care Reaffirmation for Indiana Medical Education (PRIME). Its goal is to provide doctors with the tools needed to offer better care to medically underserved and vulnerable communities, both in primary and specialty care.
PRIME will enhance the IU School of Medicine curriculum by focusing on social determinants of health, primary care skills and health systems science. The curriculum will incorporate telehealth, ultrasound, student-driven community improvement projects and scholarly concentrations. Experiential training opportunities also will be expanded throughout the state, particularly in underserved Indiana communities. This project reaches beyond medical school and will be coupled with primary care residency expansion around the state.
The HRSA grant will award $1.75 million annually for four years with a goal of giving medical students at IU School of Medicine deeper curricular and experiential exposure for providing primary care to underserved areas and populations across the state. This will be accomplished in partnership with the school’s large number of clinical partners—affiliations with 120 hospitals, clinics, practice groups and health care organizations—to assist with educational placements. Clinical partners include 26 critical access hospitals and 13 federally qualified health centers statewide.
Additionally, IU School of Medicine will strengthen undergraduate recruitment efforts focused on vulnerable populations. This includes promotion of a pipeline program in medical science designed to prepare underrepresented minority students for medical school.
