Innovative program, with high-school grads conditionally accepted to medical school, aims at rural doctor shortage

Marshall University's BS-to-MD program's first graduates, this year.

Rural America has a growing shortage of doctors; Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. aims to help mitigate that shortage in the state with an innovative seven-year "BS-to-MD" program that helps promising rural students become doctors, with the understanding that they will serve in rural areas after graduation, Dr. Kay Miller Temple reports for the Rural Health Information Hub.

Here's how it works: Promising high-school students are conditionally accepted to medical school, and in the meantime are given mentoring opportunities as they earn their undergraduate degree on an accelerated schedule. Once they get their bachelor of science degree, Marshall waives their medical-school tuition, Temple reports.

The program, which began in 2015, takes 10 students a year, and has nearly 30 undergraduates and around 35 medical students. Jennifer Plymale, the medical school dean and director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Rural Health, told Temple that while the program seeks under-served students rather than specifically rural ones, about half come from rural areas because West Virginia is largely rural. 

"About 50% of our students matched in primary-care specialties," Plymale told Temple, and added that about 30% of students matched to in-state residencies. "Both of these statistics – in addition to community of origin — are important since specialty choice and training location have been proven by research to be strong indicators of final practice type and practice site. We have great faith that when our first cohort complete their residencies, they will either practice in rural West Virginia, in rural areas of nearby states, or, if choosing an urban setting, will be more mindful of the needs of rural patients."