Staff Report
UNM School of Medicine officials are designing a program to get more doctors to underrepresented areas of the state and recruit more minority students to the medical field.
The program, still in its developing stages, would help promising University freshmen get provisional medical school admission to increase recruitment and retention of state residents in the school, said Ellen Cosgrove, associate dean of continuing medical education.
"We're committed to meeting the medical needs of the state," Cosgrove said. "We want to increase interest in the medical field starting at the community level."
Paul Roth, dean of UNM's School of Medicine, said about 1,000 freshmen say they are committed to going to his medical school. But by their junior year, when they must apply, only about 250 of them do.
Through the program, which is expected to begin in the fall of 2005, minority students will be educated in specialized areas of the health care field that are underserved in New Mexico. The students, in particular American Indians and Hispanics, will be admitted into a new dual bachelor's/medical degree program that would require a revamping of the University's undergraduate curriculum, Cosgrove said.
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"We believe that more students could accomplish their career goals and go on to help the community if they are better prepared," she said. "It is essential, if this program is to succeed, that we increase the abilities of our students."
Cosgrove said a study on UNM medical school graduates between 1983 and 2000 found that only a third of the physicians practicing in New Mexico are alumni of the University.
"We have found that where a person comes from is a strong factor in where they decide to reside after graduating from college," she said. "On average, only 30 percent of our medical school students are from underrepresented areas of the state."
Roth said he hopes to have high schools from around the state working with the University to identify promising students for the program.
To accommodate the program, the medical school will have to grow accordingly. Roth said he wants to expand the number of students admitted into UNM's medical school from 75 to more than 100.
Cosgrove could not provide a cost of the new program, saying only that the school will seek additional funding through the Legislature during the 2005 session.
"It is our goal to increase our ability to recruit and prepare students for all the medical specialty fields in New Mexico," she said.
