Coming up with innovative ways to get med students involved in rural medicine has been a challenge since doctors quit making house calls. In Indian Country, however, when disparities between health and health care for tribal people compared to the overall population are so striking, the need to recruit and train primary care doctors for reservations is even more critical.
Enter Shawn O'Leary, a member of the Boise Forte Band of Ojibwe and an Urban Health Scholar advisor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. His innovative idea - part spring break service project, part Northern Exposure - brings first-year med students to an entirely new world: Native communities in Minnesota.
