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The Rural GME Center has received $4.3 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, renewing federal support for this national consortium that works to enhance access to care in underserved rural communities.


The Rural GME Center has received $4.3 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, renewing federal support for this national consortium that works to enhance access to care in underserved rural communities.

UNC School of Medicine Executive Dean, Cristy Page, MD, MPH, founded the center in 2018 during her tenure as Chair of the Department of Family Medicine.  The program is directed by Emily Hawes, PharmD, BCPS, CPP, Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Associate Professor of Clinical Education in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Page, Hawes, Erin Fraher, PhD, MPP, Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Carolina Health Workforce Research Center, and Mark Holmes, MD, MPH, of The Cecil G. Sheps Center, among others, work in collaboration with the HRSA Office of Rural Health Policy and Bureau of Health Workforce to implement this cooperative effort. The consortium also includes NC AHEC, the University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin.

Page and Hawes built the national consortium of experts in rural health, workforce development, rural health policy, and medical education. The consortium focuses on increasing access to care through support for the development of new rural residency programs, health policy advocacy, and health workforce scholarship. The consortium has produced extensive research on rural health workforce development and successfully advocated for policies that support increased access to rural care. Since 2018, the consortium has directly supported 46 new programs that received funding from HRSA’s Rural Residency Planning and Development Program (RRPD), as well as additional programs across the nation. A total of 283 new rural training positions have been accredited in the last 2 years. Training programs span internal medicine, family medicine, general surgery, and psychiatry and work to create the next generation of rural health leaders.

The new round of funding reflects the successful partnership with HRSA, as well as the positive results generated by the program. It will support additional programming in new specialties, stronger connections to enhance shared learning across the national network, and increased dissemination of scholarship crucial to advancements in rural health policy.