By Michelle Goff
T
he University of Pikeville-Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine has received a five-year, $3.25 million Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) grant from the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). KYCOM was one of only 86 grantees across the nation to receive the highly-competitive grant and only one of three Kentucky universities to receive funding. The scholarships will provide for at least half the cost of tuition for approximately 25 KYCOM students per year. “I am so very pleased that for the second time, KYCOM has been awarded funding for the HRSA SDS grant,” said KYCOM Dean Dana Shaffer, D.O., FACOFP dist., FAOGME. “This grant allows KYCOM to help students fund their osteopathic medical education without totally depending on loans that must be repaid to the lender. By reducing repayable loans, students are more free to choose a medical specialty without worrying about going into a higher paying specialty in order to repay educational loans and accrued interest for the next several decades.”
Instructor of Medicine Candi Griffey, D.O., KYCOM ’13, will serve as the principal investigator for the grant, which aims to increase the number of graduates practicing in primary care, retention of full-time students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and number of graduates working in medically underserved areas. “As a native of Central Appalachia and a graduate of KYCOM, I have an acute understanding of the challenges faced by underserved students and medically underserved areas,” Griffey said. “This grant will not only help the individual scholarship recipients, but also the populations who will benefit from the health care they receive from these future physicians.” In order for an educational institution to receive funding, it must be carrying out a program to recruit and retain students from disadvantaged backgrounds and must demonstrate that the program has achieved success based on the percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are enrolled full-time and have graduated from the school. At least 20 percent of the school’s full-time enrolled students and graduates must be from a disadvantaged background. 16
UPIKE MAGAZINE | FALL/WINTER 2020
