LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Louisville has received $16 million to help increase Kentuckians’ access to health care, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas.

The UofL School of Medicine will use the funds from a four-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to train more primary care physicians and encourage them to practice in underserved communities where they are needed.

Kentucky has a severe shortage of health care providers, with at least some portion of 113 of the state’s 120 counties designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas, including parts of Jefferson County. Recent projections rank Kentucky lowest among the states in meeting the need for primary care physicians by 2025.

The School of Medicine will use the funding to enhance their existing programs to train students in underserved areas, help individuals from other careers who want to prepare for medical school, create a new program to train medical students in an urban environment and provide scholarships to support students financially in all these programs.

“The UofL School of Medicine is honored to have been selected as a recipient of the HRSA grant and is committed to creating pathways that support workforce development for primary care careers in medically underserved regions,” said Jeffrey Bumpous, interim dean for the UofL School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs.

The school noted a long-standing commitment to medical care in rural and small communities through the UofL School of Medicine Trover Campus in Madisonville, Kentucky. The campus trains medical students in rural areas of the state. According to the school, of the 170 physicians who have graduated from the Trover Rural Track program so far, 75% practice primary care medicine and 43% practice in rural communities.

The Trover Campus has been successful because we are able to get more rural students into medical school and then into rural practice by supporting them all the way through the process, starting with high school,” explained William J. Crump, associate dean of the UofL School of Medicine Trover Campus.

Students who enroll in one of the three new program areas will receive academic and financial support with coaching and scholarships to ensure their success in medical school.