One of Idaho’s best-kept secrets that is transforming healthcare in our state is the TRUST program.
As part of the WWAMI partnership between the University of Idaho and the top medical school at the University of Washington, TRUST stands for Targeted Rural Underserved Track. This year, TRUST is celebrating 10 years of training the next generation of rural primary care doctors in Gem State.
As a WWAMI graduate and former rural community TRUST fellow now practicing in Jerome, I now mentor medical students as a physician preceptor helping them fall in love with rural medicine while providing high quality care to patients who are not necessarily accustomed to receiving this. TRUST helps students grow faster as clinicians and feel more comfortable with procedures because they spend so much time in the same underserviced clinical environment.
One of the highlights of my career was mentoring WWAMI 2022 graduate Dr. Demise Butler.
Butler is a fifth-generation Idahoan who grew up at Spring Cove Ranch near Bliss, Idaho, and recently became the first medical student in the nation to complete most of her training in Magic Valley.
WWAMI’s decentralized medical school model allows students to complete all four years of training in their home country and, through TRUST, build long-term relationships through consistent hands-on work in rural clinics and underserved, including in Jérôme.
Butler is currently completing his residency through Full Circle Health (formerly Family Medicine Residency of Idaho) in Magic Valley, and I continue to be his attending physician.
Butler’s story embodies the value of TRUST to Idaho, which ranks last nationally in the number of active physicians per capita. The situation is particularly serious in our rural counties. It is common for my patients to drive three or four hours to get to their regular checkups, and many avoid seeking the preventative care they need because it can be very difficult to find an appointment near their farm or ranch. .
TRUST attracts some of Idaho’s top medical students, students like Butler, who go through a highly selective admissions process and are matched with communities across the state where they spend time during the four years of college. of Medicine. TRUST offers these medical students the opportunity to experience clinical care for a host of conditions ranging from diabetes and depression to cancer screenings. In addition to this, students are able to serve members of the entire family, from childbirth to helping the elderly in their homes. In their TRUST communities, these future doctors benefit from the expertise of preceptor doctors throughout their medical school career.
In 2021, the estimated number of physicians providing direct patient care in Idaho was 3,180, 19% more than the estimated number practicing in 2014. Despite another DO school now operating in Idaho, WWAMI creates still the largest number of family physicians remaining and practicing in Idaho.
Despite this, there is a persistent shortage of doctors with around 64 primary care doctors per 100,000 population. Idaho’s family physicians are also aging with an average age of 52. Compared to urban areas, most rural areas in Idaho had fewer physicians per 100,000 population, and many rural counties had higher percentages of physicians age 55 or older.
TRUST is a critical piece of the puzzle as we work to ensure that people in rural and underserved communities receive the care they need. I am grateful to the Idaho Legislature for continuing to support WWAMI for the past 50 years and TRUST for the past decade.
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