As part of its mission, ECU Health prides itself on readiness to respond to any emergency scenario that could impact the health and well-being of the people we serve. Preparedness is imperative for a health system, especially when facing potentially unpredictable emergencies.
ECU Health Medical Center recently hosted a training exercise centered around a Chempack container from the Strategic National Stockpile, part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. The containers contain antidotes to treat the symptoms of a nerve agent exposure in response to a possible chemical incident.
“While we hope never to encounter such extreme situations, like a chemical incident, being ready to respond is essential to protect our patients and communities,” said Chris Starbuck, manager of the Eastern Healthcare Preparedness Coalition at ECU Health Medical Center. “Training for scenarios ensures that the ECU Health team is equipped to act swiftly and effectively.”
Team members from across ECU Health, including pharmacists, pharmacy team members, EastCare providers, hospital police and Emergency Management personnel, partnered with Pitt County EMS to learn more about the nationwide Chempack program. The training, led by Monica Ricks, PharmD, with NC Public Health Preparedness and Response, included an overview of possible scenarios where Chempacks may be needed and their vital role in responding to chemical emergencies.
“The Chempack program began in 1983, and luckily we have never had to deploy one,” said Starbuck. “However, a large scale chemical incident like what happened in Japan in the mid-1990s would have very negative consequences to the patients and to our health care system. I’m thankful that as a health system, we continue to prioritize preparedness through ongoing education and training. In the coming months we will conduct a table top exercise with more partners that will lead up to a regional full scale exercise.”
Learn more about how ECU Health and the Eastern Healthcare Preparedness Coalition proactively plan to help care for our region: www.easternHPC.com
Dr. Audy Whitman wears a few hats: he is the program director for the Rural Family Medicine Residency program at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University; an assistant clinical professor in the Brody School of Medicine’s department of family medicine; and physician at ECU Wound Healing clinic. Balancing multiple roles and responsibilities is nothing new to the eastern North Carolina native, whose resume also includes a stint as a farmer.
“I am from a small town called Seven Springs, N.C. It was and is a farming community,” Dr. Whitman said. “Growing up, I worked on my grandparent’s farm. I worked in chicken houses and hog houses; I’ve cropped tobacco; I’ve driven tractors for harvest.”
It was that hard work, in part, that motivated him to pursue a career in medicine.
“Farming is backbreaking and grueling work,” he said. “There’s no more powerful motivator in the universe to pursue higher education than standing in a tobacco field in later summer, with 99% humidity, no shade and 100-degree temperatures. Your hands are soaked in tobacco gum, and the nicotine is soaking into your skin, so you feel nauseated all the time. I’m not saying it’s not good work to do, but it motivated me to do other things.”
Another inspiration came from his small town’s family physician, Dr. Paul Bennett.
“He was a Med-Peds (internal medicine and pediatrics) doctor by training, but he did everything a family medicine physician would do in a rural community,” Dr. Whitman explained. “He took me under his wing and talked to me about a future career in medicine.”
After high school, Dr. Whitman found himself at East Carolina University where he completed two undergraduate degrees in biology and anthropology and a master’s in cellular biology. Prior to his career in medicine, Dr. Whitman was a regulatory specialist for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in the agency’s Food and Drug Protection division, as well as a contract inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In his FDA role, he earned a special citation from the U.S. FDA Commissioner for his work on a nationwide food recall.
“I also worked for the North Carolina Community College System as a pre-health science instructor at Lenoir Community College in Kinston,” he said. “I got tired of my students calling me ‘doctor’ when I hadn’t earned that moniker, so I got serious about the idea of going into medicine. Dr. Bennett told me I should go into family practice, so he helped put me on that trajectory.”
Dr. Whitman attended the Brody School of Medicine, and in 2017, he joined the Department of Family Medicine faculty. In 2020, he was made the program director for the Rural Family Medicine Residency program.
“My detail-oriented work ethic and my ties to rural eastern North Carolina are why I was asked to head up that program,” Dr. Whitman said.
Those ties to eastern North Carolina included experiencing hurricanes that significantly impacted his hometown.
“People not from around here won’t remember hurricanes Fran or Floyd, but I recall vividly that my town flooded very severely over the years from hurricanes, and especially from those two,” he said“I recall sitting on my back deck and realizing our community was an island, and people couldn’t go anywhere.”
He also realized that the elderly and sick had nowhere to go to seek medical care.
“It provided a buy-in for me that we need doctors in these rural communities for events like this when you’re truly isolated and need boots on the ground,” Dr. Whitman said. “That experience played a role in getting the rural program up and running and productive.”
Now, Dr. Whitman is proud of the Rural Family Medicine program’s growth and its impact on rural communities like Seven Springs.
“I help train the next generation of family physicians to care for the people of eastern North Carolina and play an active role in designing systems to address health care disparities in our rural communities,” he said. “It’s fulfilling and rewarding work, and it’s an honor I don’t take lightly.”
Because of his efforts, resident physicians and graduates effect meaningful change across the region.
“When you have a patient come in for a 15-minute appointment, they often have a laundry list of other things to address because this is the one trip to the doctor they get this month,” Dr. Whitman explained. “In these cases, I think about my grandma. How would I want her treated? With these rural program residents, they are taking care of my flesh and blood.”
Without the various roles he’s held over his career, Dr. Whitman said he wouldn’t be the clinician, educator or advocate he is today.
“I’ve had both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. I’ve worked in the unforgiving elements of brutal eastern North Carolina summer heat and in positions where the health and safety of our population were dependent on the actions of me and my colleagues,” he said. “I have worked jobs in which I had the honor to educate and provide eastern North Carolinians the tools to broaden their minds and their career prospects. Through all these experiences, I have gained an appreciation for meeting people where they are and treating people with respect. They have made me who I am and compel me to do the work I do today.”
Each summer, teenagers from across eastern North Carolina dedicate a portion of their summer to serve their community at ECU Health hospitals across the region.
The VolunTeen Program is designed to teach students ages 15-17 the value of community service and to provide experiences that foster growth and maturity. The program runs from June to August and volunteers serve at least one shift per week at the hospital.
At ECU Health Medical Center, 122 teens completed 4,717 hours of service across 39 departments this summer. Sara Tingen, volunteer services coordinator at ECU Health Medical Center, said this year was very successful and they hosted their largest group of VolunTeens since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the volunteers serve in many roles across the hospital, Tingen said patient transporting from one area of the hospital to another is one of the most important tasks.
“The (ECU Health) Cancer Center alone can see 400 people in one day,” Tingen said. “That’s a lot of time it would take for a nurse or other team members to transport a patient, they rely heavily on our transport volunteers. They can just pick up the phone, say, ‘Hey, I need this person to go here to there.’ And it’s done, they can move on to caring for their next patient. We’re proud to be a smiling face and someone patients can connect with while we help them get around.”
Emily Anthony recently finished her third summer in the VolunTeen Program, where she spent her time escorting patients, assisting the Volunteer Services team on projects and serving as a leader for other VolunTeens.
She said her favorite part of the VolunTeen Program is talking to patients and team members while also making connections with her fellow VolunTeens. Emily is entering her senior year of high school and wants to pursue health care.
“It’s really great to get experience in health care, because I want to do something in health care, maybe a nurse,” she said. “The first summer, I just thought it would be a good experience to do the VolunTeen Program but I just loved working in the hospital. I worked in a unit the first summer with all the nurses and I just loved it.”
Christopher Latimer is entering his sophomore year of high school and said he had a great experience in his first year as a VolunTeen. He’s already decided he’ll join again next summer.
He said he’s had an interest in nursing and getting first-hand experience working alongside nurses has helped him understand the day-to-day work of a nurse in a hospital setting.
“I was on 2 South most of the time and I worked in the Cancer Center as well,” Christopher said. “They were both good experiences. I was going around, asking patients questions and seeing if I could help them in any way. I helped the care partners, seeing if I could help out the nurses with anything, really. I’m thinking about nursing and I’m going to also try and do different areas the next time I VolunTeen to see more and just kind of see my options in health care.”
Chad Tucker, director of Volunteer Services at ECU Health Medical Center, said Christopher’s experience is exactly what the program hopes to give back to the local students who are spending their time serving their community.
“This program is an investment in our future,” Tucker said. “A lot of these students are going into college and they get a chance to see the hospital first hand. It’s so rewarding when you see former VolunTeens who are in medical school, or they’re nurses here, they’re respiratory therapists, they are in various capacities and they attribute part of their foundation to the VolunTeen Program. These young people are able to help team members and the patients we serve, but it also gives them help in their careers.”
The program also offers Leadership Sessions for VolunTeens, which gives them a chance to see unique areas of the health system and opportunities for skill development. In one session, the group visited the EastCare helipad, learned about the team, got to look around the inside of a helicopter and even saw a landing.
In another session, the Human Resources and Workforce Development team worked on resume building and shared interview tips with the VolunTeens.
“We have quite a few seniors who are coming up on college applications so if they’re interviewing for jobs or interviewing for scholarships, it just gives them a good perspective on how to navigate possibly their first interview as a young adult,” Tingen said.
We’re proud to support the VolunTeen Program at ECU Health Medical Center and select ECU Health Community Hospitals and we’re grateful for the teen who step up each summer to help us serve eastern North Carolina.
To learn more about the VolunTeen Program and other volunteer opportunities at ECU Health, visit ECUHealth.org/Volunteers.
Greenville, N.C. – After six years with ECU Health, including serving as president of ECU Health North Hospital since August 2020, Jason Harrell has announced his retirement effective Aug. 8, 2024. ECU Health has begun a national search for the next president of ECU Health North Hospital. Dennis Campbell II, DHA, RN, NEA-BC, will serve as interim president of ECU Health North Hospital in addition to his current role as president of ECU Health Beaufort Hospital.
Jason Harrell
“On behalf of ECU Health, I would like to thank Jason for his service and dedication to advancing our mission over the years,” said Van Smith, president, ECU Health Community Hospitals. “Jason has had a distinguished 40-year career in health care, and we are grateful for his service to ECU Health. During his time at ECU Health North, Jason’s leadership, collaboration and focus on the priorities of access, quality, experience and safety have been unwavering. ECU Health North Hospital team members, patients and the community have benefitted from Jason’s leadership accomplishments.”
Campbell, II will serve at ECU Health North on an interim basis until the national search is completed. He has been with the health system for four years, previously serving as ECU Health Beaufort’s vice president of Patient Care Services before taking on the role of president in September 2023.
Dennis Campbell II
During his time at ECU Health Beaufort, Campbell, II has prioritized developing relationships with important stakeholders and partners in the area including Beaufort Community College and ECU, exemplifying his dedication to investing in the future of academic health care in eastern North Carolina.
“Dennis’s leadership skills and deep understating of the needs of our team members and the communities we serve in eastern North Carolina will be invaluable assets to ensure the stability and ongoing success of ECU Health North Hospital during this time of transition,” Smith said. “I appreciate Dennis’s willingness to serve the system in this capacity.”
As an academic health system, ECU Health serves as both a rural care delivery organization and a training ground for health care providers and support services team members.
While resident physicians and nurses come to mind as the most obvious roles that blend the clinical and academic environments, a new resident track is helping bridge an important need for patients across eastern North Carolina who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: the ECU Health American Sign Language (ASL) Residency program.
Launched in April, the ASL Interpreter Residency program was born from the demand for more skilled ASL medical interpreters. The program is designed to help increase the number of ASL interpreters available to patients across ECU Health’s system, in both hospitals and clinics, as well as train the next generation of interpreters for a career in the medical field.
More than 500,000 people throughout the United States use ASL to communicate as their native language, making ASL the third most common language in the United States, after English and Spanish, according to the Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
“There is a massive need for ASL interpreters in health care both nationally and locally,” said ECU Health ASL coordinator Reid Barnes, who designed the program. “When we looked at this need in the lens of our role as an academic health system, it made sense to model something similar to the physician resident experience.”
Residents in the program join with a two-year commitment where they focus on skill development and clinical interpreting during their first year, with close supervision in the clinical setting. The second year of the program incorporates both hospital and clinical work while also assisting with ongoing educational efforts.
Barnes, ECU Health’s only full-time ASL interpreter, works with up to 6 or 7 patients on any given day, often times spread across the health system’s 29 county service area, so the demand is obvious. What is less obvious, however, is the process behind becoming a skilled medical ASL interpreter.
A licensed or certified ASL interpreter does not receive a specialized certificate in medicine. ASL interpreters undergo rigorous testing to ensure they have generalized competencies for a multitude of interpreting settings. However, the decision to specialize in any setting is left to the individual interpreter. Specialization often involves an extensive combination of targeted workshops and firsthand experience. As a result, it is often difficult for newer interpreters to safely gain firsthand experience.
All of these factors, Barnes said, inspired the creation of the ECU Health ASL Interpreter Residency program.
“Health care should always be provided in a patient’s native language,” said Barnes. “Imagine what your health care experience would feel like if you couldn’t communicate with your doctors and nurses in your primary language? For the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, that is a very real reality. We can now expand our services, improve patient experiences and be a true training ground for skilled medical ASL interpreters.”
Jordan Satchell is the first ever resident in the ECU Health ASL Interpreter Residency program. Having served as an experience coordinator in ECU Health Medical Center’s emergency department, she has a close understanding of the important role ECU Health serves as the flagship health system in eastern North Carolina.
“Returning to ECU Health as the first ASL Interpreter Resident has been a rewarding experience in many different ways,” said Satchell. “You never truly ‘arrive’ when it comes to interpreting, so this program has allowed me to build my skills and improve my knowledge about health care. The patients I work with have already helped me become a better interpreter, and I can only hope to continue serving them, learning their needs, breaking down communication barriers, while also being a resource to the next incoming resident.”
Barnes said Satchell will help chart the future of the program, as the two work together to closely examine the needs of the patient population while tailoring the program’s design to ensure it provides the best resident experience possible.
OUTER BANKS, N.C., July 24, 2024 — Outer Banks Health and Dare County Department of Health & Human Services have joined forces with Blue Zones, the global leader in longevity research and community well-being transformation, to launch Blue Zones Ignite™ Outer Banks.
Blue Zones uses an evidence-based, environmental approach to making healthy choices easier where they live and spend most of their time. Blue Zones will work with Outer Banks Health, the County, and other community leaders to conduct an in-depth feasibility assessment to determine how to make it a healthier place to live, work, and thrive. Together with the community, the Blue Zones team will assess readiness and build a plan for change.
The launch of Blue Zones Ignite is a dream come true for Christina Bowen, MD, Outer Banks Health Center for Healthy Living Medical Director, and ECU Health Chief Well-being Officer.
“We know that 20% of health and longevity is tied to genetics; while 80% is tied to where and how we live. Blue Zones Ignite Outer Banks is going to inspire us to celebrate and promote our strong sense of community while we find ways to make it even easier to eat healthy foods, move naturally and connect with our purpose – just a few of the ways we’ll continue to enhance our well-being and make this an even better place to live and work,” shared Dr. Bowen.
The Blue Zones Approach
Blue Zones employs a proven solution in collaboration with communities to help people live better and longer lives. The company’s work is based on research and principles developed by National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author Dan Buettner, who identified the cultures of the world – or blue zones regions – with the healthiest, longest-living populations.
The Blue Zones approach focuses on the single largest determinant of health: the place we live. Instead of focusing solely on individual behavior change, Blue Zones helps communities make permanent and semi-permanent changes to policies, systems, streets, surroundings, and social networks so it’s easier for residents to eat wisely, move naturally, and connect more with others as they move throughout their day. By improving the Life Radius®—the area close to home where most Americans spend 90% of their lives—Blue Zones transformations have been able to move the needle dramatically in improving overall population health and well-being. Communities that have participated in the Blue Zone’s Ignite project have seen double-digit drops in obesity and smoking rates, economic investment in downtown corridors, grant funding awards to support policies and programs to improve health equity, and measurable savings in healthcare costs.
“Together, Outer Banks Health and Dare County Health and Human Services are steadfast in our shared mission to enhance the health and well-being of all residents, so that they can live a happy, healthy and long life,” said Dr. Sheila Davies, Director Health & Human Services.
Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones and Co-founder of Blue Zones Project, said: “We are excited to partner with forward-thinking leaders in the joint effort of improving well-being in the Outer Banks. That improvement, at the community level, leads to healthier and happier residents, better and more productive workforces and student bodies, and a more vibrant economy. We are excited to collaborate to create a transformation plan that can generate lasting positive change and ignite a community-wide movement towards sustained well-being.”
The Blue Zones expert team will connect with Outer Banks leaders and organizations to begin immediate work assessing the strengths, needs, and challenges that residents are facing today. Blue Zones will then create a policy-focused transformation plan that, once implemented, can drive widespread improvements in well-being, reductions in healthcare costs, and improve economic vitality in the region.
When it comes to skin cancer, it is no secret that early detection can save lives. Increased exposure in the sun’s ultraviolet rays greatly increases the risk for skin cancer, especially among those who work outdoors. That is why Eve Stroud, community health improvement coordinator at ECU Health Duplin Hospital, has been spending her summer in hardware stores around Duplin County providing cancer awareness information and free health screenings as part of the Hardware Store Tour.
Designed to help bring resources to people who may be at elevated risk for skin cancer – particularly those who work outside – the Hardware Store Tour initiative was first launched in 2023. Stroud and her team pair skin cancer education with free wellness screenings for important things like body mass index, blood pressure and glucose/cholesterol checks. In its first year alone, the team completed 37 health screenings and provided skin cancer education to 115 people in just three hardware store visits.
“It is always rewarding to spend time in the community providing helpful health resources to those we serve,” Stroud said. “When it comes to caring for your own health and well-being, information and education can make all the difference. Through initiatives like the Hardware Store Tour, we’re hoping to help people understand their risk factors so they can better manage their health.”
Now in its second year, Stroud and her team are continuing to focus on meeting people where they are in the local community by providing these important resources. The Hardware Store Tour is just one of the many ways ECU Health team members work toward the mission of improving the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina.
ECU Health recently joined Pitt Community College and NC East Alliance to host teachers from across eastern North Carolina as part of the NC East Alliance STEM East Summer Teacher Leadership Institute series. The initiative, designed to deepen teachers’ understanding of the health science industry, featured interactive sessions and site visits aimed at showcasing diverse career opportunities and educational pathways within health care.
Teachers started the day by attending learning sessions at Pitt Community College, where they heard from ECU Health experts about a variety of health care and health sciences topics. Following the sessions, the teachers took a tour of ECU Health Medical Center where they learned about the region’s only Level I academic medical center.
Jacqueline Thompson, a CTE teacher at Bertie Middle School, wanted to find interactive educational opportunities so her students have the chance to learn about different health care careers.
“During our information sessions, they not only talked about health care careers for people like me who teach health sciences and career exploratory, but also for math teachers and science teachers or English teachers,” said Thompson. “It helps teach us, ‘How can I collaborate with other teachers and work with them on reinforcing what we’re teaching to students?’”
As the largest employer in eastern North Carolina’s 29-county region, ECU Health has an interest in inspiring the next generation of health care workers and these partnerships help drive the health system’s ability to ensure future generations have access to high-quality care.
“ECU Health was eager to participate in this event because teachers play a crucial role in shaping a student’s understanding of career opportunities in health care,” said Lisa Lassiter, director of Workforce Development, ECU Health. “The more the teachers know and understand about health care themselves, the more they can inspire and educate the students. In addition to exposing the teachers to careers in health care, we had the opportunity to ensure teachers have an awareness of the values and professional skills needed so they can also incorporate the learning of those skills in the classroom.”
Another benefit of the collaboration is the opportunity to expand students’ knowledge on different health care careers, both in and outside of their community
“From a rural perspective, our students often only think of jobs of what they see in the community,” said Thompson. “There are more careers outside the community and we can give them exposure to different careers they’ve never dreamt of doing because they didn’t know it exists. We are seeing these careers and learning about their educational paths so we can teach our kids that they don’t have to go to a four-year college. You could get a two-year degree or a certification and stay in eastern North Carolina.”
Melissa Decarlo, physical therapist IV, Rehab Neurosciences Program, ECU Health Medical Center, regularly gives tours to students, and she was excited to be able to provide education to teachers in the community on this tour.
“For me, I enjoy what I do as a physical therapist here, touching the patients’ lives and their families’ lives,” said Decarlo. “I also think it’s our responsibility to spread the knowledge about what we do into the community. I think by doing the tours I am lighting a spark of interest and excitement within the students and showing the teachers what we do so they are better equipped to teach their students about our careers.
The collaboration between ECU Health, Pitt Community College and NC East Alliance not only supports professional development for educators but also aims to foster a new generation of healthcare professionals in eastern North Carolina.
Greenville, N.C. – Michael Waldrum, MD, MSc, MBA, ECU Health chief executive officer and dean of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, has been named chair-elect of the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) 2024-25 Board of Directors. The incoming board’s term begins Nov. 12, 2024, and will end November 2025, after which Dr. Waldrum will assume the role of board chair.
Dr. Michael Waldrum
Dr. Waldrum was named chief executive officer of ECU Health in 2015 and named dean of Brody in 2021. He previously served as president and CEO of The University of Arizona Health Network and as CEO of the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham. Dr. Waldrum is a specialist in critical care medicine and pulmonology and is trained in internal medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Dr. Waldrum has served as chair of the AAMC’s Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (now called the Council of Academic Health System Executives) since 2022, where his unique rural health care perspective helped shape discussions around the complex issues facing rural communities across the nation and how academic medicine can help solve those challenges.
“I am extremely honored to serve as chair-elect of the prestigious AAMC Board of Directors, which has long been a powerful voice in academic medicine,” said Dr. Waldrum. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with highly respected academic health leaders from across the nation who are passionate about ensuring quality health care is available to all, including those living in rural communities. While there are certainly complex challenges facing health care nationally, the AAMC’s collective expertise helps chart new paths forward that improve the lives of many. It is humbling to be a part of this important work.”
The AAMC is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 158 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 193,000 full-time faculty members, 96,000 medical students, 153,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened the AAMC’s U.S. membership and expanded its reach to international academic health centers.
Greenville, N.C. – ECU Health and the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University celebrated the graduation of the first ever cohort of resident physicians in the Rural Family Medicine Residency Program on June 30, before officially welcoming the latest class of resident physicians into the newly expanded program July 1, marking two important milestones in a program uniquely designed to help meet the academic rural health mission.
Launched in 2021, the Rural Family Medicine Residency Program provides recent medical school graduates interested in serving as family medicine physicians in rural communities first-hand experience in caring for patients in the kind of under-served settings they plan to practice in upon completion of their residency training.
The inaugural class of Rural Family Medicine Residency Program graduates and their plans for practicing are as follows:
- Dr. Jim Jaralene Porquez will start a new family medicine outpatient practice located in the ECU Health Multispecialty Clinic – Kenansville and provide hospitalist coverage at ECU Health Duplin Hospital.
- Dr. Zeel Shah will serve as a hospitalist at ECU Health Beaufort Hospital and will also provide precepting to resident physicians at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center.
- Dr. Raza Syed will join a sports medicine fellowship program in Spokane, Washington, with plans to return to North Carolina after his one-year fellowship commitment to start practice.
- Dr. Amy White Jones will move to rural western Minnesota to practice outpatient medicine at Sanford Health System.
“I could not be more proud of the four inaugural graduates from the ECU Health Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, who have all embraced the rural mission and helped pioneer this important program,” said Dr. Audy Whitman, program director of the Rural Family Medicine Residency Program. “Each of these physicians have a passion for serving rural communities and have embraced the challenge of providing care in areas where their services are critically needed. Their unique training has given them a unique understanding of how to deliver high-quality primary care in rural environments and I take immense pride in knowing they will have an incredible impact in the communities in which they will soon practice.”
Despite rural communities representing nearly 20% of the U.S. population, only 10% of U.S. physicians practice in rural areas. The ECU Health Rural Family Medicine Residency Program aims to increase the number of physicians practicing in rural America, especially eastern North Carolina. Studies show that family medicine resident physicians who spent 50% or more of their training time in rural settings were at least five times more likely than resident physicians with no rural training to practice in a rural setting.
The program exposes resident physicians to the breadth of family medicine — in both an academic medical center environment and in rural environments — so they are well-prepared to provide comprehensive care in a variety of practice settings. The resident physicians spend a majority of their first year of training at ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville before spending the next two years training at a regional location where they build connections with their patients and become integrated into the communities they serve.
The Rural Family Medicine Residency Program also received recent approval from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to expand its class size and add an additional training site location, bringing the program to nine residents per class across three sites: in Ahoskie at the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center and ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital; in Duplin County at Goshen Medical Center in Beulaville and ECU Health Duplin Hospital in Kenansville; and in Roanoke Rapids at Rural Health Group Halifax Medical Specialists and ECU Health North Hospital, which is the newest training site in the program.
The newest Rural Family Medicine Residency Program class includes:
- Dr. Flora Danquah, Ahoskie Site
- Dr. Danh Pham, Ahoskie Site
- Dr. Saima Shawl, Ahoskie Site
- Dr. Andre Mancheno-Rubio, Duplin Site
- Dr. Shelley Matthews, Duplin Site
- Dr. Jaya Purathur, Duplin site
- Dr. Tanweer Hoosen, Roanoke Rapids Site
- Dr. Tobi Okafor, Roanoke Rapids Site
- Dr. Joy Onyeanuna, Roanoke Rapids Site
“This is an exciting time at ECU Health and the Brody School of Medicine as we are truly charting the future of rural academic health care in the spirit of the shared mission to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina,” said Dr. Michael Waldrum, CEO of ECU Health and dean of Brody. “When resident physicians practice and train in rural communities, they develop an intimate appreciation for the importance of rural health care. The program’s continued growth is a testament to all who have worked hard to make the Rural Family Medicine Residency Program a reality and it is humbling to know our organization is making a profound impact on rural communities through these innovative efforts.”