The Health Resources and Services Administration recently awarded the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine a $945,000 Pre-doctoral Training in Primary Care Award for the next five years.

The purpose of the award is to increase medical student exposure to primary care with the intent of increasing the recruitment of primary care physicians to work in underserved areas.

“This award will substantially enrich and expand the family medicine–based training experiences for medical students and improve the departmental infrastructure to support delivery of the family medicine clerkship for an increasing medical student class size,” said Gurjeet Shokar, M.D., chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine.

The award will fund a project called, “Expanding Family Medicine Training for Medical Students On The U.S./Mexico Border,” directed by Shokar and Charmaine Martin, M.D., director of medical student education.

The project will enhance the family medicine clerkship with interactive Web cases focused on border health and expand the number of longitudinal electives offered during the clerkship.

Other objectives include developing a service-learning track through the third year of the medical school curriculum, developing fourth-year electives focused on border health, recruiting and training family medicine faculty to assist with the family medicine clerkship and supporting ongoing faculty development.