The school of medicine is working to address healthcare disparities, ranking #20 for “Most Graduates Practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas” and #75 for “Most Diverse Medical Schools.”
Due in part to its location and urban setting, the medical school’s foundation began with a focus to serve the community and help the disenfranchised.
Dean Alexander Norbash has been a supporter of creating solutions to meet the needs of both the urban and rural population in Kansas City.
“There aren’t enough physicians. You can’t grow enough medical schools to supply that demand, and so we have a physician assistant school,” Norbash said. “We have developed that because that’s part of the need. We don’t just deliver physicians; we deliver health care.”
Norbash believes the university’s diversity score is a testament to its commitment for representation in the medical field.
“The diversity ranking means a lot because it means that we are attracting a cross section of the population, and patients deserve to have physicians that understand them and look like them, and have their lives lived in parallel.”
Dr. Sara Gardner, senior associate dean of medical education, said the diversity rankings assessed through enrollment numbers of the previous year, happened organically.
“As I’m looking at our statistics from the MD program as a whole, and the MD at that rural campus, that’s where you really see the diversity,” said Gardner. “You see this ability to pull together this group of diverse individuals who then have this unifying goal and mission in their future careers.“
The School of Medicine’s regional rural campus in St. Joseph, Missouri, opened as an initiative to provide more options and better healthcare in smaller communities. The first graduating class of the campus is set for this December.
Dr. Michael Wacker, senior associate dean of the St. Joesph campus, said it was a conscious effort to get physicians back into areas of greater need.
“Starting the regional campus was part of trying to fulfill that mission to the state of Missouri,” said Wacker. “We’ve got something here in Kansas City, and we are working with University Health and other partners to serve the underserved, but we also need to do that in rural areas as well.”
