Michelle Rupp: Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of AFMCTV. I’m your host Michelle Rupp. Hanna Windley joins me now, and Hannah, you work here at AFMC.
Hannah Windley: Yes, ma’am.
MR: And so, we are talking about a program that AFMC is proud to be a part of, Arkansas Good Medicine (AGM).
HW: Yes ma’am. The AGM Program is funded by the U.S. Department of the Health Resource Services administration through a grant we have here at AFMC, and so far, this is our fourth year of the grant and we’ve had 13 fellows graduate through our program. So, we are currently in the process of recruiting for our fourth cohort.
MR: So, tell me about this program, somebody who may be watching, and this is the first time they’re hearing about Arkansas Good Medicine and it’s a fellowship in that cohort. Like what does it mean? What all do you do?
HW: So, with the Arkansas Good Medicine program we train physicians on things such as trauma-informed care, adverse childhood experiences, social determinants of health, population health, and we also touch on things like leadership and quality improvement as well as providing our fellows with a nine-month opportunity to actually implement a health care transformation project within their own clinic so that they can have a real impact, not just within their clinic but, within their community as a whole.
MR: Okay, so you’re teaching them?
HW: Yes, ma’am.
MR: Okay. And it’s physicians that are already in practice, you’re not necessarily looking for medical school residents or anything like that.
HW: That’s correct. Our requirements do state that providers have to have been practicing for at least two years with an M.D., D.O., or a P.A. license, at this time. We’re hoping in the future to be able to expand that to APRNs and nurse practitioners, especially since Arkansas is so rural. We want to be able to open it up to every provider to give them the opportunity to learn and to be able to just have the opportunity to do something larger than themselves and even larger than their clinic through the health care transformation projects.
MR: How long does this program run?
HW: So, every cohort lasts one year, typically from March to February, and the first 12 weeks of the program are strictly curriculum based and everything is done online. So, our fellows can be from anywhere, not just in the state, but we also accept fellows our providers from anywhere in the country. So, it makes it very easy for them to be able to do the online learning program and then their nine-month transformation project is done within their own clinic. So, they never actually have to travel here to Little Rock.
MR: It sounds like it’s very user-friendly.
HW: Yes, we’re trying to make it that way as much as possible, especially with everything going on with the current pandemic. We know health care providers are busy, so we’re trying to make it easy for them, but we also wanted to be a very rigorous learning opportunity and a way for them to have a very positive impact within their community.
MR: You mentioned this is the fourth cohort that you’re recruiting for. Is there a magic number? How many providers that you accept into the program?
HW: At this time? We’re hoping for seven fellows for the cohort to start in March of 2022.
MR: It’s exciting.
HW: Yes. We’re in the process of recruiting with our two partners. The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM) and ARcare, which is an FQHC here in Arkansas.
MR: Okay, so if someone is interested, is there a website that we can direct them to? How can they either get more information or fill out an application for consideration?
HW: Of course, yes. We have the Arkansas Good Medicine website, which is info.afmc.org/agm. It has all of the information on it. It has a spot where you can even ask questions and we’ll get back to you and of course, the application is on there. Our application process runs from now through January 28 of 2022.
MR: Okay, so you’ve got from now, early mid-December until January.
HW: Yes.
MR: Okay, Fantastic. And then when will the notification be made?
HW: We’re hoping to have notifications out probably no later than the second week of February because we’ll have a kickoff meeting, virtual of course, at the very end of February and then their curriculum phase will start on March 13. So as long as everything goes well, we’ll be starting right on time in March.
MR: Fantastic. Which is right around the corner.
HW: Yes, it’ll come very quickly.
MR: Very quickly.
MR: Yes. Hannah, thank you for coming in today.
HW: Of course. Thank you for having me.
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