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Armstrong County Memorial Hospital partners with IUP to sign clinical training agreement

Armstrong County Memorial Hospital and IUP sign an agreement to recruit rural doctors
Armstrong County Memorial Hospital and IUP sign an agreement to recruit rural doctors 01:52

KITTANNING, Pa. (KDKA) -- IUP's proposed college of osteopathic medicine and Armstrong County Memorial Hospital signed a clinical training agreement as there's a need for doctors in rural areas. 

"We all feel this need together and we're gonna solve this need together," said IUP President Michael Driscoll. "We will be sending medical students to do clinical rotations in the hospital here, so that they learn to be great docs in rural areas that's the key," said Driscoll.

"We have to pass the knowledge along, I think it's important to educate tomorrow's doctors," said Dr. Sarun Sawan, ACMH General Surgeon and Chief Medical Officer.

Sawan does doctor recruitment as part of his duties. He said giving students a taste of working in rural medicine could get many of them to stay.

"In a smaller community, you can have more intimate relationships with your patients," he said. "You can have more close relationships with the docs that you work with."

Miko Rose, the proposed school's founding dean, calls the recruitment plan a "grow-your-own" model.

"Our real focus is much like Armstrong, Kittanning, and this community," she said.

IUP signed similar agreements with Indiana Regional Medical Center and Punxsutawney Area Hospital, with both entities wanting to achieve the same goal.

"We're starting a movement of communities coming together to solve the rural healthcare crisis," Rose said.

The proposed school is hoping it can graduate its first students by 2031.

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