Arizona Partners With Tribal Nation on New Med School Campus

A branch campus of the University of Arizona College of Medicine will open next July in the Gila River Indian Community, according to a news release from the university. It will be the first U.S. medical school to grant doctor of medicine degrees within a tribal nation.

The university plans to admit 10 medical students per year for the three-year program in partnership with Gila River Health Care, which will fund the student scholarships, faculty positions and educational infrastructure, according to the release. Students will spend the first half of the program in Phoenix and the second half—the clinical education portion—at the branch campus in Sacaton.

About 45 minutes south of Phoenix, the Gila River Indian Community is home to about 14,000 people. Census data shows that only about 2 percent of residents have earned a master’s degree or higher, and about 36 percent of residents live below the poverty line—more than double the rate in the rest of the United States. 

University and tribal leaders said they hope this program will inspire more Native American students to go into medicine, improve access to care in the community and bolster Arizona’s physician workforce, according to the release. 

“This partnership challenges us to think differently about where and how physicians are educated,” Fredric Wondisford, dean of the university’s medical school, said in a statement. “Clinical excellence is shaped not only by scientific knowledge, but by understanding the communities physicians serve. By educating future physicians within a tribally operated healthcare system serving Native communities, we are creating a learning experience that cannot be replicated in a traditional academic medical center.”

Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community, said in a statement that the new branch campus will allow young people who dream of being doctors “to learn, train and build their careers right here in the community, where they can make a real difference for the people they serve.”