Medical students accepted into Integrated Family Medicine Program Announced
Medical students accepted into Integrated Family Medicine Program Announced Heading link
Goal of the grant-funded program is to retain top graduates in Rockford
Rockford, Ill. – Three medical students at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford will have a more direct path to becoming family medicine physicians in Rockford thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois.
The Integrated Family Medicine Residency Program allows medical students to receive additional clinical experiences in family medicine with obstetrics, mentoring and a stipend to help defray educational costs. In their final year of medical school, these students are then ranked to match at the UICOMR Family Medicine Residency Program and will train at UI Health Mile Square Health Center-L.P. Johnson Rockford and UW Health SwedishAmerican Hospital for the next three years during residency.
The UICOMR medical students accepted into the program this year are:
- Jenna Lafferty, M4, from Freeport, IL
- Alex Thomas, M4, from Lake in the Hills, IL
- Julia C.S. King, M4, from Clinton, IL.
Nationally, 61 percent of residency program graduates practice medicine in the region where they completed residency training. By offering incentives for current Rockford medical students through the Integrated Family Medicine Residency Program to complete residency training in Rockford, program leaders hope to retain these physicians in Northern Illinois following their residency training.
“Two graduates of the College of Medicine Rockford who were accepted into the Integrated Family Medicine Residency Program are currently in their second year of residency at UICOMR,” says Rhonda Verzal, MD, director of the UICOMR Family Medicine Residency Program. “They are demonstrating an advanced clinical trajectory and have become leaders within our residency program.”