The UA College of Medicine along with Phoenix and Gila River Health Care are creating the nation’s first MD medical-school branch located within a sovereign Tribal Nation. The first DO-degree-granting medical school on tribal land is the “Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine on the Cherokee Nation” in Tahlequah, OK. Its first class graduated in 2024.
Next summer (July 2027) 10 students will be admitted to the UA- Phoenix medical school into an accelerated three-year primary-care program. They’ll spend their first 18 months doing foundational medical education (in Phoenix) and then move to Sacaton for the final 18 months of clinical education.
Educate doctors where Arizona needs them most | Opinion
The clinical rotation part is the best. During the 18-month clinical rotation segment students will be part of the Gila River Health Care system, working under faculty supervision with patients across different clinical settings.
There’s also a workforce strategy behind the model.
Physicians are more likely to eventually practice in communities where they train. So instead of trying to recruit doctors to underserved areas after residency, this model builds the pipeline there in the first place.
UA launches medical school branch (and clinical rotations) on tribal land
Gila River Health Care is putting serious resources behind the idea ($25M through 2034), including full tuition scholarships, faculty and educational infrastructure. The partners are also exploring development of primary-care residency programs at Gila River Health Care.
Read the full announcement here
Arizona has struggled for decades to recruit physicians to rural, Tribal and underserved communities.
Embedding clinical medical education directly into those communities strikes me as just what the doctor ordered.
