Unique collaboration to help resolve shortage of primary
care physicians in Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Leaders from Meharry
Medical College and Middle Tennessee State University signed an agreement
Thursday (June 22) to develop an accelerated pathway for talented students to
graduate as physicians to serve in rural areas of the state.
Meharry President James Hildreth and MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee
launched the partnership at a State Capitol signing ceremony that highlighted
the unique collaboration between the private and public institutions that was
brokered by state officials.
State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, a graduate of MTSU, and Mike
Krause, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, helped
bring MTSU to the table after Hildreth first proposed the accelerated
bachelors-to-doctoral degree program.
“It is imperative to increase the number of primary care physicians
in the state and to incentivize them to practice in underserved areas if
Tennessee is to improve the overall health of its citizens,” said Hildreth, a
medical doctor.
Said McPhee, “This unique collaboration between a private medical
college and a major public comprehensive university is just the right catalyst
to spark true change for the benefit of the people of the great state of
Tennessee.”
Hildreth said the health status of Tennessee is among the worst in
the country, with the state ranked in the bottom five for many important health
metrics. One reason, he said, is the fact that there aren’t enough doctors to
care for those who are sick.
The agreement, McPhee said, will help accelerate the production of
physicians by creating a six-year pathway for selected high-ability students to
attain a bachelor’s degree at MTSU and a medical degree at Meharry.
MTSU and Meharry will develop a three-plus-three-year program that
will allow students to enter MTSU as undergraduates, then matriculate at
Meharry for a medical education, earning degrees from both entities.
McPhee and Hildreth said
officials from both entities are already working to develop a joint admissions
process and criteria for selection into the program. They hope the program will
be able to accept students at MTSU by the Fall 2018 semester.
Students selected for the program would be eligible for financial
aid from a $750,000 commitment put forward by the state — if they commit to
working in underserved areas of Tennessee for a specific duration to be
determined.
Krause said THEC was “particularly excited about the possibility for
graduates of this joint program to serve as health care providers in our most
needy areas.”
He also said the partnership was “exactly the kind of collaboration
we need to reach our state's
Drive to 55 goal,” which calls for 55 percent of adult Tennesseans to receive a
post-secondary credential by the year 2025.
"Innovative, collaborative approaches like this partnership are
exactly what we hope will materialize across this state as we try to increase
the number of Tennesseans with a college degree,” Krause said.
Ketron said the arrangement may be the first partnership of its kind
between a private college and a public university.
“To my knowledge, this is the only partnership of this magnitude
anywhere in the country,” he said. “When I mention this partnership to people,
it becomes a ‘wow’ moment, because it is such a game changer.”
“This will benefit the entire state,” said House Speaker Beth
Harwell, who was among several lawmakers in attendance at Thursday’s signing
ceremony. “It is innovative, and I applaud the leadership here today for
working on this endeavor for quite some time.”
Located in Nashville, Meharry is one of the nation's oldest and
largest historically black academic health science centers dedicated to
educating physicians, dentists, researchers, and health policy experts.
Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee
College, Meharry was the first medical school in the South for African-Americans.
It was chartered separately in 1915.
Hildreth said Meharry “has a strong, enduring legacy of training
primary care physicians who practice in underserved areas throughout the
country and Tennessee. Of the Tennessee students enrolled in our schools,
about half stay in Tennessee to practice medicine or dentistry.”
Hildreth said MTSU’s reputation and results as one of the state’s
leaders in undergraduate education and a top choice for students from Tennessee
made the institution a great choice for the collaboration.
MTSU, founded in 1911, is a Carnegie Research Doctoral University
composed of eight undergraduate colleges, offering more than 40 departments and
more than 140 degree programs. Its College of Graduate Studies offers more than
100 degree programs.
McPhee pointed to MTSU’s newly built and renovated Science Corridor
of Innovation, which houses state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories for its
College of Basic and Applied Sciences, as a key asset in the collaboration.
MTSU’s $147 million Science
Building, which opened in 2014, is among the most advanced undergraduate
science research and teaching facilities in the nation. It is the largest
single investment by the state
of Tennessee on a higher education campus.
“MTSU is the No. 1 producer of college graduates in the Greater
Nashville region and boasts some of the most innovative partnerships in
Tennessee higher education,” McPhee said.
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