FARMINGTON – Franklin Memorial Hospital is one of three rural hospitals in Maine to be chosen to work with Tufts University School of
Medicine in Boston and Maine Medical Center in Portland to become a teaching site for medical students.

The new medical school partnership is aimed at addressing the severe shortage of doctors in Maine, which is worse in rural
areas. As an indication of how severe the doctor shortage is here, the Maine Recruitment Center at the Maine Hospital Association is trying to fill more than 250 vacant positions.

The program will begin during the summer of 2011, with early sessions this August and in spring 2010 at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

“The medical school relationship will be very helpful in recruiting new doctors to our hospital,” said Rebecca Ryder, Franklin County Health Network president. 

The students will spend their first two years at Tufts with rotations in Maine, then move to Maine Medical Center for their third year
of medical school. During the third year, students training at Franklin Memorial Hospital will live and learn in Franklin County, with the hospital providing housing. The curriculum will focus on rural and small-town practice.

Dr. David Dixon, Franklin County Health Network vice president for medical affairs and education said, “The association with the new medical school is particularly exciting because of their commitment to Maine students, coupled with a multidisciplinary, long-term (up to nine months) clinical rotation at Franklin Memorial.”

Maine students will receive preference for 20 of the 36 seats, and it is anticipated that students will receive a 50 percent reduction in tuition.

Graduating doctors will receive a combined diploma from Maine Medical Center and Tufts.

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