Study Finds Med Schools Can Promote Rural Careers

The University of Missouri at Columbia's medical school is reporting success with a program designed to send more medical students on to careers in rural health care. An article in the new issue of Academic Medicine describes a special track at the medical school in which students are exposed to rural health needs and issues throughout their time in medical school. Participants in the program were more than twice as likely as others to obtain residencies in family medicine, and 57 percent of participants started their medical practices in rural areas (compared to 9 percent of all M.D.s who work in rural areas).