ACGME Annual Meeting

Robert Brodell, MD; Adam Byrd, MD; Ira Harber, MD; and Ross Pearlman, MD, presented a session at the 2021 ACGME Annual Meeting: Meaning in Medicine: Mastering the Moment entitled - Rural Residency Slots: Promise and Pitfalls. The session was well received based on audience feedback. The abstract for the session reads:

Mississippi is a rural state with incredible access to care problems. The Department of Dermatology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center has taken an "all of the above" approach to attacking our rural care crisis, including a nationally recognized teledermatology program; a free clinic in the Mississippi Delta; Project ECHO to teach rural dermatology to rural primary care physicians; and establishment of an academic rural dermatology office and a rural dermatology residency position. One of four residents each year matches into the rural residency. This rural resident spends three months in each of their years of dermatology education and training rotating in Louisville, Mississippi, on a general dermatology rotation and owes three years of practice on the UMMC faculty after graduating in rural Mississippi (usually in the resident’s home town). While all of the department’s access to care initiatives have been successful, the rural dermatology residency program is on track to provide 30,000 office visits per year in rural Mississippi seven years after initiation when all current residents are in place.