Eight New Interns Added to Aviva Health’s Family Medicine Residency Program

Today the National Resident Matching Program 2022 Main Residency Match announced the eight newest family medicine interns joining Aviva Health’s Roseburg Family Medicine Residency Program (RFMR), increasing the total number of doctors in the program to 24. A partnership with CHI Mercy Health, Aviva Health’s residency program is the only one of its kind in Douglas County and aims to train and retain doctors to practice in rural areas of Oregon. “We’re so excited to welcome these physicians to our family medicine residency program,” says RFMR Chief Resident, Simran Waller, MD, MPH. “This is a monumental moment for our program as these eight new doctors will bring our program to its full complement of 24 residents.” It also means this time next year the program will celebrate the graduation of its inaugural cohort of eight resident physicians who will complete their three-year training regimen. RFMR officials are hopeful some of them will choose to stay and practice in Roseburg or other rural locations in Oregon. According to a study published in the journal Family Medicine, more than half of family medicine physicians practice within 100 miles of their residency program. That bodes well for Douglas County, an area recognized by the Health Resources and Services Administration as a health provider shortage area. While still new to the community, the residency program has already had a perceptible local impact. Many of the program’s second-year physicians provided direct patient care in Mercy’s emergency room and intensive care unit during the devastating COVID-19 delta surge that imperiled Douglas County late last summer. “Residency training in the middle of a pandemic has presented us with a unique set of challenges,” says Chief Resident Gabrielle Kelly, MD. “Our hospital rotation when the delta variant was making so many people sick was one of those challenges, but at the same time the experience has strengthened us, fortified our resolve, and made us better doctors, giving us invaluable knowledge and insight we can share with our newest eight residents.” In addition to the hospital, residents participate in clinical rotations at Aviva Health’s Family Medicine Clinic, the VA, and many other practices, all of which prepare them for long futures in medicine. The arrival of this year’s residents also times perfectly with the May opening of Aviva Health’s new medical clinic, a 31,000-sq.-ft. building that will provide an additional 34 exam rooms, conference space, and a dedicated area for resident precepting. The new facility, full cohort of resident doctors, and growing program faculty roster will greatly benefit a community that has long struggled to recruit and retain family medicine physicians. For more information on the Roseburg Family Medicine Residency Program, please visit www.aviva.health. Via Aviva Health