The Teaching Health Center (THC) program was started in 2011 to increase the number of primary care residents and dentists trained in community-based settings, and to fill gaps left by the current system of graduate medical education. Based in clinical training sites that include community health centers and other community-based sites, the THC program trains medical residents to practice in underserved communities serving people who are geographically isolated, and economically or medically vulnerable. More than 91 percent of THC graduates remain in primary care practice and about 76 percent of THC residents practice in underserved regions of the country. If funding for the program is eliminated, primary care shortages in underserved areas would be exacerbated.
Leighton Ku, Fitzhugh Mullan Cristine Serrano, Zoe Barber, and Peter Shin authored the report.