VCOM 2020 Annual Report

VIRGINIA

MESSAGE FROM THE VIRGINIA DEAN Building the Future JAN M. WILLCOX, DO, FACOFP V COM-Virginia prides itself on helping to build the future of primary care in the southeast United States. Through each graduating class of new physicians, VCOM is meeting the healthcare needs of the rural and medically underserved areas of southwest Virginia and the southern Appalachian region. Our Mission is accomplished by recruiting students from rural areas, training in rural and underserved areas and then returning physicians to their home communities to practice medicine. Most VCOM-Virginia medical students come from at-risk, distressed or transitional counties in Appalachia, and 23 percent hail from communities with populations of less than 10,000. Nearly 50 percent of all VCOM students are from rural communities with populations under 30,000. As VCOM was established, we collaborated with hospitals in rural and underserved areas of southwest and southside Virginia to expand educational opportunities for physician training in areas of need. VCOM-Virginia has maintained and expanded additional relationships to provide the healthcare workforce for our communities. We have worked with many of these programs in developing postgraduate residency training opportunities. More than one hundred alumni have returned to our rural and underserved clinical sites as teaching faculty physicians for our current students. I am proud of VCOM-Virginia and the other campuses as we fulfill our mission of bringing physicians to those most in need and continue to build the future of primary care. ■

Over 55% of all VCOM graduates are practicing in a rural or medically underserved area and over 65% of VCOM alumni are practicing in the College’s target areas in an Appalachian county or city. 189 NEW PHYSICIANS graduated in the VCOM-Virginia Class of 2020 2 , 391 TOTAL PHYSICIANS (including the Class of 2020) graduated from VCOM-Virginia since 2007

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