UNE awarded a $2.5 million federal grant to improve rural Maine health care

The University of New England (UNE) has been awarded a five-year, $2.5 million federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to partner with Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) to transform the primary care workforce in rural and underserved Maine and improve health outcomes.

Over the course of this five-year grant, a total of 255 UNE students — 160 medical, 25 physician assistant, and 70 pharmacy students — will train together at PCHC, learning the skills needed for exemplary interprofessional, team-based care. They will also hone complementary skills needed for this century, including social determinants of health, oral health knowledge, health literacy, and shared decision making with patients. UNE faculty will work onsite with 30 PCHC clinicians, preparing them to become clinical faculty for these new proficiencies.

“As Maine’s largest educator of health professionals, UNE holds national and international reputations for teaching comprehensive, team-based care, also known as interprofessional education”, said Dora Anne Mills, M.D., UNE’s vice president for Clinical Affairs, director of the Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, and the grant’s principal investigator and chief author. “These funds will equip both today’s and tomorrow’s health care providers with team-based skills as well as other tools needed to engage effectively with patients and populations to improve health. The grant will also build a pipeline between UNE and PCHC, expanding upon UNE’s long history of providing health professionals across the state, especially to rural and underserved Maine.”

Ken Schmidt, CEO of PCHC stated, “PCHC is Maine’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center and only federally-designated teaching health center. Including three graduate residency programs, PCHC’s 750 employees provide comprehensive integrated primary health care for over 60,000 people. He continued, “This care is provided regardless of personal circumstances at 16 service sites throughout the Bangor region, in Winterport and Belfast, and in Jackman.”

“We are excited about hosting teams of UNE students from different professions,” Schmidt said, “and expanding PCHC as an interprofessional teaching health center, with 30 of our clinicians becoming clinical faculty in team-based care and teaching other skills needed for the 21st century.”

The grant will start July 1, 2016 and run through June 30, 2021.

To learn more about the University of New England’s Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, visit www.une.edu/academics/centers-institutes/center-excellence-health-innovation

To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions