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Many medical students dream about joining or starting up practices in big cities like Philadelphia, New York or Boston, upon graduation.

But for graduates like Bernie Proy profiled in the new book, Caring for the Country: Family Doctors in Small Rural Towns by family physician Howard K. Rabinowitz, M.D., of Jefferson Medical College, being a family doctor in a rural community was a far better choice.

“What I like most about being a rural family doctor is my chance to make a difference, care for people and establish long-term relationships with my patients,” says Dr. Proy, a Jefferson Medical College graduate, of his practice in Corry, Pa.

The lives and work of Dr. Proy and nine other graduates of the Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) of Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, are chronicled in Caring for the Country.

The PSAP was developed to address the long-standing shortage of physicians in rural communities, said Dr. Rabinowitz, professor of Family Medicine and director of the PSAP at Jefferson since 1976.

“While 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural America, only nine percent of physicians practice there. The resultant lack of access to primary health care is especially critical for these individuals, given that rural inhabitants are also poorer, sicker, older, and less likely to be insured than inhabitants of non-rural areas, Dr. Rabinowitz said.

“Everyone deserves access to medical care,” he said.

For the past 30 years, the PSAP has been highly successful in increasing the supply and retention of rural family physicians. This unique admissions and educational program has received national and international attention, as documented in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and reported on CNN.

The program recruits students who have grown up in a rural area and who are committed to practicing family medicine in the same or similar area.

“The recruitment and selection process of students for the PSAP has been key to the program’s success,” explains Dr. Rabinowitz.

Overall, PSAP graduates are eight times more likely than their non-PSAP classmates at Jefferson to practice family medicine in a rural area of the U.S. And almost 80 percent are continuing to practice rural family medicine 11 to 16 years later, the highest retention rate ever reported.

Caring for the Country focuses on the lives of 10 PSAP graduates who wanted to provide health care to people living in small towns and rural areas.

“People who live in rural areas - one out of every five Americans - deserve to have a doctor!” said Dr. Rabinowitz, a past president of the American Board of Family Practice, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. “Yet for most of the past century, not enough physicians have chosen to practice in small rural towns. These stories of 10 of my former students – obtained through audio taped personal interviews, and shadowing these physicians as they saw more than 100 patients in their offices and hospitals – show the joys and challenges of rural family practice at the beginning of the 21st century. They highlight the remarkable dedication of these physicians, the excellent care they provide their patients, their ability to make a difference in their communities, and their professional and personal satisfaction with their careers and their lives as rural family doctors.”

In addition to Dr. Proy, the other PSAP graduates profiled are:

• Jim Devlin, M.D., in Brockway, Pa.
• Mike Tatarko, M.D, in Nanty Glo, Pa.
• Viola Monaghan, M.D., in Ovid, N.Y.
• Bill Thompson, M.D., in Boswell, Pa.
• Chris Dotterer, M.D., in Selinsgrove, Pa.
• Catherine O’Neil, M.D., in Bloomsburg, Pa.
• Thane Turner, M.D., in Lock Haven, Pa.
• Joe Nutz, M.D., in Morehead City, N.C.
• Dave Baer, M.D., in Bedford, Pa.

While addressing the current state of rural medicine, Caring for the Country also outlines its future, challenging pre-med undergraduates, medical students, and family physicians to consider a career in rural family medicine.

Caring for the Country was supported in part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care.

A native of Pittsburgh, Dr. Rabinowitz obtained a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1971 and attended Rutgers University in New Jersey from 1964 to 1967. From 1993 to 1994, he served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D,W.Va.)

Caring for the Country is published by Springer-Verlag and can be purchased at the Jefferson Medical and Health Science Bookstore, located at 1009 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, or through the book store’s web site at www.jefferson.edu/bookstore or Springer’s website, springeronline.com.