Maine Track aims to alleviate state's rural doctor shortage

    A new four-year program partnering the Tufts University School of Medicine and the Maine Medical Center (MMC) inducted its first class of recruits in August in the hopes of boosting the surprisingly low number of physicians in rural areas of Maine.
    The program, Maine Track, reserves 20 of its 36 openings every year for Maine residents and students attending colleges in Maine, adjacent New England states or in regions "deemed similar" to Maine, according to the program's press release.
    The collaboration, initiated by Tufts and MMC in February 2008, is a response to a consistent decrease of first-year medical students in Maine since 1980.
    Students will spend their first two years at Tufts and then move to MMC or other Maine hospitals for rotations in their third and fourth years.
    Program recruits benefit from a significant cut in the high tuitions of out-of-state medical schools. Students in the program are considered for scholarships in their first year that cut Tufts' tuition in half, making it similar to what students would normally pay for in-state tuition at a regional medical school at a public university. Maine Track is currently working towards continuing the scholarship throughout students' following three years.
    Both MMC and Tufts' medical school are involved in the program's admissions process and creating a curriculum which focuses on service in rural areas. Graduates will receive a combined diploma from the Tufts School of Medicine and MMC.
    Robert Bruce, a student participating in the program and a Maine resident, said Maine Track appealed to him because he grew up in the rural town of Caratunk, Maine. Residents in his hometown, which had a population of 108 people according to the 2000 census, often had difficulty getting health care because hospitals were inaccessible.
    "Where I grew up, the nearest hospital was 45 minutes away when the roads were good," Bruce said. "It was difficult because, particularly for a lot of older people, that's not feasible."
    The practical training in Maine will expose students participating in the program to an environment that will equip them with the skills necessary to practice rural health care. Beginning their medical studies in Boston, though, allows the new recruits to experience how health care functions in an urban setting.
    "Being in Boston, just right in the center of a strong medical community, I'm looking forward to [visiting] a lot of these hospitals and getting the experiences," said Jasmine Chiang, a student from Connecticut also participating in the program.
    Chiang said her experience working at a farm exposed her to the numerous problems residents living in rural areas face. Maine Track sparked her passion for practicing medicine in a rural community.
    "More farmers are uninsured because they can't afford health insurance," she said. "They have a lot of injuries, ligaments torn and a lot of chronic repetitive injuries, [so] I wanted a chance to give back to the community."
    Janessa Nason, a student from Millinocket, Maine, is looking forward to bringing what she learns back home.
    "I'm just looking forward to using the knowledge I gained from Tufts ... in help[ing] people in my home state," Nason said.
    Chiang said that she hopes to gain a "different perspective on medicine" while studying at Tufts. She believe that practicing medicine in a smaller community means more than just being a health care provider.
    "When you're a doctor in a rural community, [you're also] a community leader, a friend and a family member," she said.