The Comprehensive Urban Underserved and Rural Experience (CU2RE) program has received a supplemental award from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for $5.2 million.
The supplemental funding will be used to increase educational activities for medical students, redesign family medicine clerkship curriculum across all UAB regional campuses, provide CU2RE students with stipends to offset medical education costs and implement new faculty, staff and student development initiatives.
“This supplemental funding will help us reimagine medical student education in primary care at UAB,” said Irfan Asif, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and associate dean for primary care and rural health for the School of Medicine. “We will be able to collaborate even more with our regional campuses and key community partners and help develop innovative models of care in clinics across the state such as telehealth suites and genomic programs.”
As CU2RE begins its second year of programming, MS1 students in the School of Medicine are encouraged to apply to be a part of the 2021-2022 cohort. Selected students will receive longitudinal mentoring from family medicine physicians, early access to clinical hours, a 10-patient panel to work with over four years, leadership and interprofessional education and more. Interested students can learn more and apply here by September 1 for consideration.
The CU2RE program is designed to enhance the recruitment, training and retention of medical students dedicated to serving as family medicine physicians to provide primary care in the medically underserved urban and rural areas of Alabama. HRSA provided the initial funding for the program in 2020. For more information, please visit the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s website.