UB Primary Care Externship Program Bolstered With $150,000 Grant

Release Date: November 25, 1997 This content is archived.

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BUFFALO, N.Y.-- An innovative program providing real-life clinical learning opportunities in primary care for University at Buffalo medical students has received a $150,237 three-year grant from the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation of Stamford, Conn.

Administered by UB's Primary Care Resource Center, the six-week Medical Student Summer Externship program is recognized as the largest of its kind in the nation by the American Medical Student Association's Generalist Physician in Training Initiative. The paid externship exposes first- and second-year medical students to the practice of primary-care medicine in community-based settings throughout Western New York.

Diane Schwartz, executive director of the Primary Care Resource Center, said the Culpeper Foundation grant will help fund an assessment of ways to retain UB medical students to practice primary care in Western New York.

"Our numbers are showing that 50 percent of UB medical school graduates are entering primary care," said Schwartz. "However, the significant issue is retention. With more analysis and evaluation on the primary-care externship program, we will have valuable information on how we can retain the medical students entering primary care in Buffalo and the surrounding areas."

Gathering this information, explained Schwartz, could have a significant impact in areas with a health-care shortage designation, a federal term to identify areas with too few medical professionals available.

"It is important to attract students to practice primary care in these areas," said Schwartz. "Developing long-term relationships with patients and the community through the externship program, we believe, provides the impetus for the medical students to continue practicing medicine here."

The Culpeper Foundation grant also will fund stipends for 20 medical students per year to participate in the externship program, as well as provide partial funding for an associate director of the program.

Only in its fourth year of operation, the program is praised by UB medical students like Anthony Rice, a 1996 externship participant who discovered the program reinforced his interest in primary care.

"Now, more than ever, I am convinced family medicine can provide the challenging, rewarding career I am seeking for my professional future," said Rice.

Schwartz said the medical school would like to see the externship program serve as a national model for other schools.

"The quality of health care is directly affected by the quality of physicians available," said Schwartz. "We are grateful to the Culpeper Foundation and hope others will follow the foundation's lead in supporting this program."

The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation is a private, non-profit charitable foundation established by the late Charles E. Culpeper, one of the early pioneers in the bottling and marketing of Coca-Cola. The foundation provides approximately $7 million per year in support for activities in health, education, arts and culture, and the administration of justice.

For information on how you can help support the University at Buffalo, go to http://www.buffalo.edu/giving.