The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has approved McLaren Health Care for a Family Medicine Residency Rural Training Tract (RTT) program primarily based in Petoskey.
The residency program is a 1 + 2 program where family medicine residents start their first year at an urban hospital (McLaren Flint Family Medicine Residency) and complete their second and third-year training at a rural setting (McLaren Northern Michigan). There will be two residents per year.
The first residents will start July 2022 at Flint and come to McLaren Northern Michigan in July 2023. The first class of residents will graduate from the program in the summer of 2025.
"Our goal for the residency program is to expand the much-needed primary care physician base for our rural northern Michigan communities," explains Andrew McDonagh, MD, Chief Medical Officer at McLaren Northern Michigan. “With 20 percent of Michigan residents living in rural areas, but only 10 percent of Michigan physicians providing care in these areas, there is a tremendous gap that we hope to fill and provide better access to care."
Local Family Physician Todd Sheperd, MD, has been named Site Director at McLaren Northern Michigan for the residency program. Dr. Sheperd is residency trained in family medicine and fellowship-trained in primary care sports medicine. In this role, he will oversee the curriculum, resident development and assessment, faculty development, recruitment, and academic projects. Additionally, Dr. Sheperd will work with the community family physicians to provide oversight and teaching in the residency clinic that will be in the McLaren Medical Office Building and will maintain relationships with subspecialty providers involved in the residency rotations.
“I am excited to be a part of this program and its development,” said Dr. Sheperd. “I believe that the patients in our area will benefit from having high-quality, caring Family Physicians being trained in the area. Recruitment of these resident physicians will focus on providers with rural backgrounds and interest in caring for patients who live in smaller communities. We plan to attract candidates from medical students from our region who have strong academic backgrounds as well as the personal dedication to serve the needs of patients from historically underserved, rural areas. Our area is a perfect rural setting for these residents and they will learn from some very best providers and specialists who are dedicated to caring for patients in our northern Michigan community.”
Visit the McLaren graduate medical education programs for more information on this rural training tract at McLaren Health Care.