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Additional grant funding strengthens graduate-level primary care curricula targeting screening, care of eating disorders
Graduate Medical Education - Strategic Priority: Define workforce needs for our system and our region
In May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) notified Geisinger that it would receive additional funds for graduate medical education programs in primary care.
Designated Institutional Official Michelle Thompson, MD, said the funds will be used to implement training on Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for eating disorders. SBIRT is a public health approach to the delivery of early intervention and treatment services for people with eating disorders and those at risk of developing them.
Dr. Thompson, who is chief education officer and vice dean for Graduate Medical Education, said, “The money will be used to incorporate this important training into the primary care behavioral and mental health curriculum delivered to our Lewistown family medicine residents. Specifically, the funding will support faculty time in developing eating disorder curriculum that will be integrated into both formal didactics and experiential learning.”
“Faculty support will be instrumental to the development of content to help diagnose and provide effective, comprehensive care for eating disorder patients,” said Mandy Maneval, MD, PhD, Geisinger Lewistown’s family medicine program director. “Through this education, our program aspires to increase access to and availability of primary care physicians ready to care for these vulnerable patients.”
The additional funding is part of a larger, five-year HRSA-funded Primary Care Training Enhancement (PCTE) grant awarded in 2020 to increase the preparedness of family residents to practice in rural and underserved areas.
Dr. Thompson serves as principal investigator on the grant, and Dr. Maneval and Janet Townsend, MD, professor emerita, are co-investigators.
