This is the second interview in the Student Doctor Network series of “community-based medical education” interviews.

(See the previous interview with Gerard Clancy, MD, the Dean of the newly established University of Oklahoma (OU) School of Community Medicine in Tulsa.)

The A. T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona is located in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. The structure of the school differs from that of other medical schools in having only the first year of medical school in Mesa, and the remaining three years for each student located in one of 11 participating community health centers.

SDN interviewed four members of the A. T. Still University faculty in Mesa.

SDN: Doctor Wendel, as Associate Provost of the A. T. Still University, please give us an overview of your new community-based medical school.

Dr Wendel: Our understanding of the need for a new medical school grew out of a relationship the A. T. Still University had developed with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). We realized that there are an estimated 50 million people in the United States with unmet health care needs. Read the full story