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TSET Commits Funding To New OSU Medical Residency Program

KWGS News

The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust will help OSU with a new, rural physician residency program.

TSET is committing $2.4 million to the program, with OSU and Stillwater Medical Center covering the rest of the $6.1 million total. 

"It’s going to span three years, five residents per year for a total of 15 residents at the end of three years. The TSET funding, our funding, will pay for resident salaries and other expenses of the program," said TSET Director of Programs Jonás Mata.

The residency program will start July 2022.

"We’re very excited about this, and, of course, it’s still considered a rural program in Stillwater," said Dr. Bill Pettit, who serves as dean of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation.

TSET has discussed with OSU the possibility of requiring rural residents to commit to practicing in a rural or underserved community when they finish the program.

State entities have tried a number of tactics to address a shortage of doctors in rural Oklahoma, including medical school loan repayment supported by TSET. 

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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