Columbia-Bassett Medical School Enrolls First Class

Cooperstown, NY -  Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P & S) and Bassett Medical Center have enrolled a class of medical students poised to be among the first physicians to graduate medical school uniquely trained to lead the health systems of the future.
An inaugural class of 10 students has been selected to the Columbia-Bassett Program and the interest and the caliber of student exceeds every measure of success.

Last year, Columbia and Bassett announced a new medical school program designed to train rural physicians as well as a new generation of doctors capable of leading health systems that promote both quality and cost-effective delivery of care. A total of 758 men and women applied for the program's 10 slots - a ratio of applicants to positions that is more than double the ratio recorded last year at Columbia P & S. The applicants came from over 200 colleges in every state (except Hawaii), Canada and Australia. Among the schools with 10 or more applicants were Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and UC Berkeley. The 10 students accepted have MCAT scores and grade point averages comparable to those of students at top medical schools in the country. In fact, their GPAs and MCAT scores are higher than the mean of last year's enrolled class at Columbia P & S.  They come to the Columbia-Bassett Program from Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, Geneseo, The University of Kansas, The University of Arizona, The University of Sydney, Australia; Williams College, Hamilton College, and The University of South Dakota.

"The motives of the applicants we interviewed for the Columbia-Bassett Program were truly inspiring - in essence, students were attracted to the program's emphasis on caring patient relationships and on learning skills to improve health care systems for populations of patients, said Dr. Henry Weil, Columbia's assistant dean for education at Bassett. "Clearly, a new generation of physicians with such attitudes would help the United States move toward better and more affordable health care."

Blake Alberts, a senior at the University of South Dakota (USD), is one of the 10 students accepted to the Columbia-Bassett Program. "Bassett has the same mission but is 180 degrees opposite in how it approaches health care," explained Albert. He was in an accelerated program at USD that included six weeks in a rural hospital in Custer, S.D. "That's the biggest thing I'm excited about: Being able to see a different approach to health care is invaluable."

Freda Ready, a Cornell University graduate, noted, "The physical beauty of upstate and western New York is truly unmatched. The communities in the area are, however, challenged by the poverty and lack of access to medical care that face so much of rural America today. The Bassett Healthcare system is known for successfully reaching out to the surrounding community and allowing people to take control of their own physical well being."  Additionally, Freda commented on the program's unique humanitarian approach to medicine. "The educational model revolves around the idea that patients are whole people. In today's changing health care system, it's important that physicians not only be healers in the traditional sense, but also be advocates for their patients, and I believe the Columbia-Bassett track is geared towards teaching students to do just that," Freda said.

In addition to training these medical students the financial and systems side of their profession, the program also intends to address the shortage of rural physicians. "With this infusion of individuals - individuals who were selected not just for their professional excellence but for their personal excellence - it is our hope that in the years to come, some of the students will remain in health care systems like ours, including ours," said Dr. Walter Franck, Columbia's senior associate dean at Bassett.

Students in the Columbia-Bassett Program will spend their first 18 months in Manhattan and then get their clinical training for two and a half years at the Bassett campus in Cooperstown, N.Y. So they experience an urban health care setting and a rural health care environment, while also being exposed to features not typically part of the medical school curriculum, such as finance, risk management, patient safety, quality improvement and medical informatics.

The Bassett Healthcare Network is an integrated health care system that provides care and services to people living in an eight county region covering 5,600 square miles in upstate New York. The network includes six corporately affiliated hospitals, as well as skilled nursing facilities, community and school-based health centers, and health partners in related fields.