Illinois Medicine

1994 World Health Organization holds its First Global Conference on Medical Education and Medical Practice in Rockford 2003 Campus receives designation as National Center for Rural Health Professions with a focus on addressing rural health disparities 2004 Martin Lipsky begins tenure as regional dean 2006 Landmark gastrointestinal medicine study published in the New England Journal of Medicine introduces a new best practice to the specialty 2008 New interdisciplinary campus created; state-of-the-art expansion project adds classrooms, research facilities, conference rooms and a standardized patient suite 2010 Ribbon cutting for official opening of 58,000-square-foot addition to campus, which includes dedicated space for National Center for Rural Health Professions and regional campus for UIC College of Pharmacy 2012 New Illinois Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Justice opens to address mental health and/or substance abuse challenges to underserved minorities. "I was surprised at the reach of the medical school," he says. "Yet so much of what it does flies under the radar. It helps so much of main- stream Rockford, but I think there is real potential for other groups to use its services, too." Through Valdez, some Latino medical students will make presentations to first-generation students at Jefferson High School in Rockford through the RAISE (Reaching and Inspiring Stu- dents for Education) mentor program. Unlikely mentorship came in many forms in the college's histo- ry. A critical turning point in the development of the Rockford campus that helped pave the way for future departments, colleges and programs such as biotechnology was the creation of the research arm through the department of biomedical sciences in 1977. Stanford-trained biophysi- cist George Pack, PhD, was one of the first of those trained in basic sci- ences who was recruited to help develop it beyond a clinical-only site, he says. "The clinicians treated me with awe," Pack says. "They were extremely respectful. I'm still not sure why. I had a research program they didn't understand and I brought in money in a way that hadn't yet been done there." Pack performed—to the tune of being awarded sev- eral million dollars in NIH funding over his decades-long employment with the school—and even inspired clinical researchers. "It was exciting getting in on the ground floor and building the research environment. You can't be an academic institution if you don't contribute to the field, if you don't have organized research, and you need money to do that. I think they [clinicians] appreciated that." The influence of funding can't be overemphasized. The campus has worked diligently to raise funds from the day it opened its doors, for everything from improvements to educational programs, to its expansion projects. Even students are making career choices based on paying back school loans. If it weren't for a government loan repayment program in exchange for practicing in a rural or underserved area, 2012 graduate Jillian Kaskavage, MD, wouldn't be able to pursue her desire to practice primary care. "Surgery wasn't for me and ob/gyn was too stressful," she says. Kaskavage matched in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and she was exposed to plenty of nonsurgical specialist role models through Rockford's historically primary care-based curriculum. Family practitioner and physician legend LeBaron Paul (L.P.) Johnson, MD, helped found the school in 1972 as well as its legacy training program, the family practice residency, in 1975. Johnson, 91, empathizes with students who are torn between wanting to go into pri- mary care medicine but can't reconcile the relatively low pay with a high debt burden. "Everyone thought I was rolling in dough, but I wasn't," he laughs before turning thoughtful. "I'll never be completely satisfied with the low number of graduates who go into primary care, but at least it's increased." The College of Medicine at Rockford has done its part of late, with 8 of 51, or 15.7 percent, 2012 graduates matched in family medi- cine programs, twice the 2009 national average of 7.5 percent, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. At least part of the responsiveness of these graduates to the call of primary care medicine is the exposure they receive in their forma- tive training years. In the second year of medical school, students rotate through community health centers one-half day a week. And in their third year of medical school they have a six-week block experience combined with a 24-week longitudinal experience with a community primary care physician. The importance of primary care is so ingrained that even though third-year student Jonathan Twu isn't picking primary care for a career, he helped found a place for the uninsured to receive once-weekly acute care. More than 70 percent of graduating students participate in at least one care-giving experience in the basement of First Presbyterian Church, where the Bridge Clinic set up shop in 2008. Twu remains steadfast in his desire to become an orthopaedist because he appreciates the immediacy of improvement through a medi- cal intervention. "If people have hip pain, I want them to get better right away through an operation," he says. If the family practice residency is its legacy program, the College of Medicine at Rockford's Rural Medicine, or RMED, program is its sig- nature program. Michael Glasser, PhD, co-creator of the program, says RMED was established and funded through the Illinois legislature two ILLINOIS MEDICINE | 33

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