MIDOCs Adds Third Cohort of Resident Physicians Committed to Training in Underserved Areas of Michigan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2021
PRESS CONTACT: Ana Hornburg 517-908-8229 or ana.hornburg@mhc.org
LANSING, Mich. – MIDOCs, a state-funded program intended to improve access to care in Michigan, recently accepted 20 new resident physicians into the program. Each participating resident physician has committed to practice in a primary care health professional shortage area (HPSA) during and after training and is eligible to receive up to $75,000 in loan repayment. The 20 new participants (attached below) make up the third cohort of resident physicians in the MIDOCs program.
Dr. Haria Henry, a physician resident at Wayne State University School of Medicine, is enrolled in the Family Medicine Urban Track program. Henry is one of MIDOCs’ participating resident physicians from the second cohort, which is expected to begin practicing in 2023. Upon completion of her residency, Dr. Henry plans to work with underserved populations in the areas of mental health and addiction. She also plans on obtaining a master’s degree in population health.
“I was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. My father is a pediatrician; actually, the first black pediatrician in the Tallahassee community. Seeing his dedication and hard work when it came to his patients inspired me to become a doctor from a very young age. I remember patients bringing him fish they’d caught as a ‘thank you’ because that’s all they could afford,” said Dr. Henry. “I believe having access to health care is a basic human right that everyone should be afforded, no matter your race, age, or socioeconomic background. This program is dedicated to the disenfranchised and often forgotten, a program in which I want to train.”
Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 75 counties have at least partial designation as a primary care HPSA. Studies show resident physicians who train in these community settings are nearly three times more likely to practice in an underserved area after graduation.
“To fully serve a community, physicians need to understand health outcomes, social determinants of health, policies, and interventions,” said Amy Hoge, Executive Director of MIDOCs. “It’s critical to start training providers in underserved areas as early as possible so they can learn that firsthand.”
MIDOCs funding enables Michigan residency programs to create new training programs in rural areas of the state. Two years ago, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine was able to expand psychiatry training in the Upper Peninsula. Four rural track physician residents are currently participating in the MIDOCs program there – two in the first cohort and two in the second.
Last year, MSU and Pine Rest expanded their residency training to Traverse City. This year, MSU was able to create a new rural training track under the MidMichigan Family Medicine Residency in Midland partly due to the increased residency slots created through MIDOCs. Those two physician residents will train in Alpena.
"Medical students with a desire to provide care in rural and underserved patient populations across Michigan are a perfect fit for the MIDOCs program," said Dr. Mary Jo Wagner, Designated Institutional Officer (DIO) at CMU Medical Education Partners. "Since the program is specifically designed around primary care, MIDOCs provides the opportunity for physicians to pursue this passion of increasing access to care while alleviating their medical school debt through the loan repayment offer."
MIDOCs will begin recruiting for their fourth cohort of resident physicians in the fall of 2021. For more information, visit michigandocs.org.
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ABOUT MIDOCs
MIDOCs is an initiative of the MIDOCs Consortium, a partnership between Central Michigan University College of Medicine, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine, and Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. MIDOCs was created to address the physician shortage in Michigan by increasing the number of residency slots; to increase access to care in high-need, rural and urban underserved areas throughout the state by retaining residents to practice in these communities after their training; and to help alleviate medical school debt for doctors practicing in Michigan’s medically underserved communities. Learn more at michigandocs.org.
MIDOCs is managed by Michigan Health Council (MHC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on a mission to create products and provide services their partners rely on to build health care workforce capacity. Learn more at mhc.org.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this press release had Christian Grant’s Name incorrectly listed as Christian Church.
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