The New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, which operates a campus at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, has signed partnership agreements with the University of Guam, Guam Memorial Hospital and Guam Regional Medical Center.
The partnership will allow NYITCOM students unique training opportunities to enhance their ability to care for some of the most medically underserved populations in Arkansas, according to a press release. The school will train student doctors from the continental U.S. and Guam on the U.S. territory island, located in the Pacific Ocean.
“NYITCOM has a long history of working with medically-underserved communities to help address issues regarding access to healthcare and health education,” said Dr. Shane Speights, dean of NYITCOM’s Arkansas campus. “We’re fortunate through these partnerships to come alongside the university and the hospitals to support their efforts and initiate change that truly will make a generational impact.”
NYITCOM’s new relationship with the University of Guam is intended to increase the number of island residents who pursue medicine, the release stated. This partnership is designed to help meet physician shortages in both Guam and the Delta region, with some U.S. students expected to remain in Guam to practice and some Guam students expected to remain on the mainland. There is currently no medical school in Guam.
“The goal of this endeavor is twofold,” Speights said. “The first being that we want to support an important U.S. territory in the training and retention of a sustainable physician workforce, something we have successfully done here. The second part is that understanding the cultural context of the patients you’re serving is key to providing quality care, and these partnerships give our medical students invaluable opportunities to gain that perspective.”
NYITCOM, based in Long Island, New York, operates medical schools there and in Jonesboro. The Guam partnerships will operate through the Arkansas campus, which opened in 2016 with a pointed mission of training physicians to practice in medically underserved parts of Arkansas and the greater Delta.
Feature image: From left: Sen. Tina Muña-Barnes; Brookshield Laurent, associate dean of population and public health, NYITCOM at A-State; Shane Speights, dean, NYITCOM at A-State; UOG President Anita Borja Enriquez; UOG senior vice president and provost Sharleen Santos-Bamba; UOG College of Natural and Applied Sciences Dean Rachael Leon Guerrero; and UOG CNAS interim associate dean Maika Vuki. (Photo provided by NYITCOM)
READ ALSO: SE Bentonville’s Next Big Thing? A Developer Betting on Quality and Connection
