Mentoring in Medicine Longitudinal Study

The United States is facing a worsening physician shortage that particularly affects people living in rural or underserved communities. One strategy used to address this problem is clinical exposure programs for students in high school, college, and/or medical school. Research currently suggests that these programs could influence participants' interest in medicine, specialty choice, and practice location preferences. Mentoring in Medicine is a summer clinical exposure program that targets college students in the Johnstown area of Pennsylvania. This region of the state is socioeconomically disadvantaged and medically underserved. No formal follow-up has been conducted on the participants since the program began in 2004. We plan on surveying these past participants to examine their academic and career interests and outcomes. We will also use physician databases to determine career outcomes. This data will help contribute to the body of evidence regarding educational interventions to improve medical shortages in the United States.