Med School and Local Physicians Team Up to Train Doctors

$SIU School of Medicine\$

December 22, 2004

SIU Med School and Local Physicians Team up to Train Future Doctors

More than 140 practicing family physicians in 80 Illinois communities are helping train future physicians by mentoring medical students from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

As part of the medical school's family medicine curriculum, each SIU medical student spends five weeks away from the Springfield campus during their third year, working along side a community physician. The purpose is to give students an opportunity to develop their medical skills in an office setting under the supervision of an experienced physician.

Medical educators such as Dr. Amber Barnhart, associate professor of family and community medicine and director of the family medicine predoctoral program at SIU, believe physicians in local communities play an important role in training the family physicians needed to meet the health care demands of the future.

"SIU's family medicine preceptorship gives our students an opportunity to experience medicine on the front lines. The students work with a community physician making hospital, home and nursing home visits, working in the clinic and delivering babies," said Barnhart.

Serving and experiencing Illinois' rural communities and areas with diverse cultural populations is a goal of the program. In many cases, students are placed in or near their hometowns, where they also can experience a sense of pride in helping provide medical care to people in their communities.

"Our volunteer preceptors in small communities throughout Illinois take students into their offices and work with them one-on-one. So they get an intense exposure to practicing medicine. The students get involved in the business aspects of medicine as well," said Barnhart.

"Having the medical students involved in our practice has given me an impetus to stay on top of the current findings in the medical field. We’ve received positive feedback from patients because the medical students can spend more time listening to them and learning about their symptoms," said Dr. Jerome Epplin, of the Litchfield Family Practice, who has participated in the preceptor program since its beginning.

SIU was among the first medical schools in the country to incorporate a program relying on community doctors as teachers into its curriculum. The School's family medicine preceptorship program began in 1981. Today, more than 1,680 medical students have completed preceptorships.

"SIU medical educators feel these communities offer students a credible learning environment for family medicine that is different than an academic medical center. Not all medical schools offer this type of opportunity to students," she added.

Throughout its four years, SIU's innovative medical school curriculum uses various clinical experiences outside of the classroom like the family medicine preceptorships. It also uses real and simulated patients, small group learning activities, and regular, collegial interaction with the full-time faculty. SIU family medicine faculty, based in Springfield, Quincy, Decatur and Carbondale, believe that medical knowledge developed in the context of solving real patient problems is better retained for future use.

"The preceptors are the key to our program because they set the tone by serving as models for the students. We owe a tremendous debt to the volunteer preceptors for the work they do," explained Barnhart.

The SIU School of Medicine is based in Carbondale and Springfield and is specifically oriented to educating new physicians prepared to practice in Illinois communities. Since 1975, 1,919 physicians have earned SIU medical degrees and two thirds are now in primary care fields.

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Note to Editors: Attached is a list of the Illinois communities with preceptors. The next preceptorships begin January 5, 2005.

SIU Med School Preceptor Locations

Anna - Dr. Brian Reach, Dr. Pamela Reach, Dr. William Ribbing, Dr. Eric Ruebke
Belleville - Dr. Shelly Harkins, Dr. David LeBeau
Belvidere - Dr. Troy Doetch, Dr. Judith Light
Bloomington - Dr. Paul Nord
Bourbonnais - Dr. Clyde Dayhoff
Carbondale - Dr. Roger Jones, Dr. Brian McElheny, Dr. Ana Migone, Dr. Sharon Smaga
Carlinville - Dr. Brian Quarton
Centreville - Dr. Miguel Granger, Dr. Alfred Johnson, Dr. Jay Magner
Champaign - Dr. Ingrid Antonsen, Dr. Charles Buchanan,
Chatham - Dr. James Crabtree, Dr. John Rollet, Dr. Mike Sheedy, Dr. Gerald Suchomski
Chester - Dr. John Beck, Dr. Susan Carr, Dr. James Krieg, Dr. Lisa Lowry-Rohlfing, Dr. Stephen Platt
Clinton - Dr. Jenny Powell
Collinsville - Dr. Pat Zimmermann
Coulterville - Dr. Shawn Beckemeyer
Danville - Dr. Karen Broader
Davis Junction - Dr. Timothy Flynn
Decatur - Dr. David Gregory, Dr. Anthony McCormack, Dr. Tom Rohde, Dr. Robert Smith
DuQuoin - Dr. Craig Furry
Dwight - Dr. Philomena Francis
Effingham - Dr. Roger Bishop, Dr. Michael Brummer
El Paso - Dr. Paul Hakes, Dr. Steve Ingalsbe, Dr. Larry Sapetti
Eureka - Dr. Steven Jones
Fairbury - Dr. Heather Dameron-Herr
Fairfield - Dr. Steven Scott
Flora - Dr. Galen Lueking
Forsyth - Dr. Timothy Miller, Dr. Kenneth Scribner, Dr. Mike Wall
Freeburg - Dr. Todd Vonderheide
Galesburg - Dr. Christine Baumgardner, Dr. Greg Link, Dr. Jamie Nesselroad
Gibson City - Dr. David Hagan
Gillespie - Dr. Chris Poirot, Dr. Bruce Weber
Girard - Dr. Ashir Wahab
Glen Carbon - Dr. Raymond Weber
Granville - Dr. Shawn Bailey
Greenville - Dr. Richard Funneman, Dr. Tracy Hall
Harrisburg - Dr. Larry Jones, Dr. Steven Knight
Herrin - Dr. Jeff Parks, Dr. Samantha Sattler, Dr. Mark Smith
Hillsboro - Dr. Douglas Byers, Dr. Brian Cady, Dr. Robert Mulch, Dr. Melody Schniepp
Jacksonville - Dr. Shawn Fry, Dr. Marshall Hale, Dr. Mark Savage
Jerseyville - Dr. David Harmon
Kankakee - Dr. Tim Hodges
Knoxville - Dr. Jeanine Maere
Lawrenceville - Dr. Gary Carr
Lebanon - Dr. Paul Reger
Lincoln - Dr. Susan Harmon, Dr. Paul Kasa, Dr. John Wahab
Litchfield - Dr. Jerome Epplin, Dr. Elaine Fisher, Dr. Tim Ishmael, Dr. Phil Johnson, Dr. Roger Wujek
Macomb - Dr. Ed Baker, Dr. Curt Farr
Marshall - James Turner, D.O.
Mascoutah - Dr. Steve Pritchett, Dr. Steve Raben, Dr. Judy Weis
Mattoon - Dr. Robert Wochner
Metropolis - Dr. Drew Coleman
Millstadt - Dr. Carla Samson
Morton - Dr. Stanley Koch
Moweaqua - Dr. Alan Bilyeu, Dr. Thomas Bilyeu
Mt. Sterling - Dr. Charles Lagoski
Mt. Vernon - Dr. Chris Modert, Dr. Sara Kneedler Modert, Dr. Charles Neal, Dr. Linden Pearson
Mt. Zion - Dr. Craig Brown, Dr. Dennis Costerisan, Dr. Dan Smith
Murphysboro - Dr. Mattie Chamness
Nashville - Dr. Thomas Coy, Dr. Gary Goforth
Normal - Dr. Carl Peters, Dr. Regina Powers, Dr. Susan Rausch, Dr. Robert Sawicki, Dr. John Tran
O'Fallon - Dr. Kevin Pritchett, Dr. Brad Sakran
Olney - Dr. Brad Houston
Ottawa - Dr. Brian Rosborough
Paris - Dr. Leland Phipps
Pekin - Dr. Greg Moskop
Peoria - Dr. Robert Bevill, Dr. Les Johnson
Petersburg - Dr. David Newton
Pinckneyville - Dr. Gregg Fozard
Pittsfield - Dr. Ron Johnson
Princeton - Dr. Kurt Crowe, Dr. Martin Faber
Quincy - Dr. Larry Davis, Dr. Mike Eling, Dr. David Lockhart
Roodhouse - Dr. Randy Voigts
Springfield - Dr. Michael Brewer, Dr. Daniel Lanzotti, Dr. Dan O’Brien, Dr. Jennifer Richards, Dr. Kim Schoenburg, Dr. James Stegeman, Dr. Eugene Wenthe, Dr. Dennis Yap
Sullivan - Dr. Glen Dust
Taylorville - Dr. Leslie Jackson
Troy - Dr. Dolores Cantrell, Dr. Claude Carmichael, Dr. Deborah Fowler-Dixon
Tuscola - Dr. Randy Megeff
Urbana - Dr. Christian Wagner, Dr. David Whitehill
Vandalia - Dr. Waseem Hussain
Waterloo - Dr. Michael Kirk, Dr. Jay Pickett
Watseka - Dr. Phillip Zumwalt
West Frankfort - Dr. Dennon Davis, Dr. Kevin Oestmann
West Salem - Dr. Tim Garrett