The Indiana Graduate Medical Education Board awarded $2.5 million to various medical schools and health systems to develop residency programs or establish feasibility studies to offset the state's looming shortage of physicians in primary care, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
To meet population demands, Indiana will need to increase the number of primary care physicians by 21 percent by 2030, according to the report, which cited a study conducted by Tripp Umbach, a consulting firm in Pittsburgh.
The 10 grants, totaling nearly $2.5 million, were given to institutions that are developing new residency programs in the state or exploring potential residency programs. Indianapolis-based Indiana University School of Medicine and Evansville, Ind.-based Southwestern Indiana Graduate Medical Education Consortium received program development grants totaling $2 million. Six other medical institutions in the state received program feasibility grants totaling $444,906.
"This helps a great deal," Michelle Howenstine, MD, senior associate dean for graduate medical education at the Indiana University School of Medicine, told the Indianapolis Business Journal. "We really need these positions to offset the projected physician shortage."