ISU awarded AHEC grant to improve primary care services in rural communities

Idaho State University has been awarded a $386,250 grant to establish an area health education center or AHEC to improve access to primary care in underserved and rural communities of southeast Idaho.

The AHEC will be housed in the university’s Institute of Rural Health and provide interdisciplinary training for ISU nursing, pharmacy and physician assistant studies students, according to IRH interim director Dr. Elizabeth Fore.

The center will also provide continuing education for working health practitioners and serve as a pipeline to recruit high school students to careers in the health professions.

The ISU award begins September 1 and will run through August 31, 2022.

Fore said funds will be used to hire a center director, develop curriculum, coordinate continuing education activities and establish field sites for student rotations. The director will also oversee implementation of an AHEC Scholars Program, which will provide advanced health professions training for up to 15 ISU students a year.

The ISU award is part of a $3 million grant awarded to the University of Washington’s WWAMI program by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. WWAMI is a regional medical education partnership established in the 1970s to train primary care physicians in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.