Video Q&A — Preventive Medicine for Rural America: Why More Training Programs Must Be Here
While there is a well-recognized national shortage of Preventive Medicine (PM) physicians, there is also a marked maldistribution. In a new article in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, Drs. Jennifer Lultschik and Christopher Martin describe one approach to address the disparity in PM specialists in practice within rural regions such as Appalachia by supporting a greater number of Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs based within these regions.
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Currently, of the 64 accredited civilian PM residency programs, only 4 are located in rural areas. The only PM residency programs based in the entire Appalachian region are based at West Virginia University.
In the following video, Lultschik and Martin describe the challenges to the establishing and sustaining rural-based Preventive Medicine GME programs as well as opportunities for promoting and supporting GME programs based in rural areas of need.
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Dr. Jennifer L. Lultschik
Dr. Jennifer Lultschik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Sciences at West Virginia University School of Public Health. She serves as Program Director for the WVU Public Health and General Preventive Medicine residency and has served as Associate Program Director for the WVU Occupational Medicine residency.
Dr. Christopher Martin
Dr. Christopher Martin is a Professor and currently serves as Program Director for the Occupational Medicine residency, Designated Institutional Official for the School of Public Health, and is the Principal Investigator of a Training Project Grant from NIOSH and a Preventive Medicine Residency Training Program Grant from HRSA.