The Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma State University collaborate to increase number of Indigenous physicians

Charlee Dawson, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is an OSU at
Cherokee Nation medical student. (Photo by Arielle Zionts, KFF Health)

Native American health care has been marked by glaring disparities in access and affordability for tribes when compared to other U.S. populations. In one dramatic solution, the Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma State University worked together to build the only physician training program on a Native American reservation and affiliated with a tribal government: Oklahoma State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine, reports Arielle Zionts of KFF Health News. Its first class will graduate in May 2024.

Located in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, the program "aims to increase the number of Cherokee and other Indigenous physicians. It's also focused on expanding the number of doctors from all backgrounds who serve rural or tribal communities," Zionts reports. "Natasha Bray, an osteopathic physician and dean of the program, said most medical schools teach about barriers that can make it difficult for rural or Indigenous patients to get care and improve their health. But she said students in Tahlequah get to see these barriers firsthand by studying on the Cherokee Reservation and doing rotations in tiny communities and within facilities run by the federal Indian Health Service."

Overall, rural America doesn't have enough doctors now and not enough medical students seeking to enter rural medicine for future needs. For Native Americans, recruitment and retention numbers are abysmal. Zionts adds, "Rural residents make up about 14% of the U.S. population but fewer than 5% of incoming medical students, according to a study of 2017 data. Native Americans are 3% of the population but represented only 0.2% of those accepted to medical school for the 2018-19 school year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges."

In a refreshing contrast, the new medical school has been successful at recruiting rural and Native American students. "Half the 2020 medical students in Tahlequah are from rural areas, and nearly a quarter are Native American," Zionts reports. "Most of the Indigenous students are from Oklahoma tribes. Others come from tribes outside the state, including from Alaska and New Mexico. . . . Students said studying at the Tahlequah campus prepares them to work in tribal and rural areas in ways that might not be possible at other medical schools."

Zionts reports, "Native Americans have long received inadequate, discriminatory, and unethical health care. The Indian Health Service sterilized thousands of women in the 1960s and '70s. Today, the agency remains chronically underfunded. . . . This [history] has led some Indigenous people to mistrust the health care system. But several of the Tahlequah students said they've bonded with patients who share similar backgrounds."

Medical student Caitlin Cosby, a member of the Choctaw Nation, told Zionts, "It really comforts patients to know that someone like them is taking care of them." Zionts adds, "Cosby, 24, said she once had a patient who asked, 'Are you Native?' And I said, 'I am!'. . . The patient told Cosby he was proud of her."