With new grant funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine will launch a Center for Excellence in Primary Care. It will grow and build on existing programs to recruit, train, and retain medical students interested in pursuing primary care in underserved areas.
The department is working towards creating a new center to include more than 100 scholarship opportunities for students interested in primary care. These scholarships are made possible thanks to the support from UAB Heersink School of Medicine and several partners.
Blue Cross Blue Shield, VIVA, the Huntsville Regional Campus, and the Heersink School of Medicine Dean’s Office all contributed matching funds.
Other strong partners include Alabama Statewide AHEC, and Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH and the Live HealthSmart Alabama program.
The proposed center will build on the success of the department’s Comprehensive Urban Underserved and Rural Experience, or CU2RE, program. It launched in 2019 with four-year funding from a similar HRSA grant.
Since its debut, the CU2RE program has grown exponentially. It now includes programming for medical students, pathway programming for undergraduate students interested in medical school, faculty development, and practice transformation efforts.
“Our success in securing this grant is a testament to the strong foundation we have built through programs such as CU2RE, our pre-medical initiatives, faculty development programming, and more,” said Irfan Asif, M.D., chair of the department, associate dean of primary care and rural health and principal investigator for the HRSA grant. “This grant will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of medical student education, particularly in our mission to develop the next generation of primary care physicians from underserved backgrounds.”
The new center will expand pre-medical programming for students interested in primary care, including a new partnership with a program aimed to prepare students for the medical school application process. The Blaze to MD pathway program will set aside five seats specifically for students interested in primary care, plus, provided they meet program requirements, these aspiring physicians will receive direct admission to the CU2RE program.
Partnerships throughout UAB’s four campuses, and the state, support ongoing primary care programming at UAB, and the grant effort. These partners include UAB leadership teams in Huntsville, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa, Cahaba Medical Care and Christ Health, two Federally Qualified Health Centers, and statewide primary care preceptor network.
CU2RE leaders are currently accepting applications for the next cohort! For more information on program requirements and eligibility, or to apply, visit our website. The deadline to apply is Mon., Oct. 9.