Hannah Zahedi, center, is one of the recipients of the new Blue Cross Blue Shield primary care scholarship. Five UAB School of Medicine students completing their clinical educations at the Tuscaloosa Regional Campus are among the recipients of the new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama primary care scholarships. The students are Tanner Hallman, Savannah Johnson, Joshua Price, Grace Spears, and Hannah Zahedi.
Students selected for the scholarship have indicated their intent to pursue primary care residency training after medical school and then to practice in a medically underserved Alabama county. The hope is they will remain in those counties after their commitment.
Blue Cross provided $3.6 million to the School of Medicine for the primary care scholarships to train a total of 60 primary care physicians over five years. After residency, the physicians agree to practice for three years in a county with a primary care shortage. The scholarship pays the tuition of 12 third- and fourth-year medical students each year.
“The support provided by Blue Cross in helping students interested in primary care careers, by lowering their medical school debt with these scholarships, is very important to the state and underserved communities, as well as to these future physicians,” says Richard Streiffer, M.D., regional dean of the Tuscaloosa Regional Campus and dean of The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences.