Rural Health is National Health

East Carolina University

Greenville
NC
Rural Track Program
Family Medicine

ECU Health Medical Center is one of the largest hospitals in the United States. It is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in eastern North Carolina and serves approximately 1.5 million people living in its 29-county catchment region. ECU Health Medical Center is affiliated with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. East Carolina University is a large public university with an enrollment of nearly 30,000 students. The Brody School of Medicine at ECU was founded over 40 years ago to train primary care physicians to provide care for this medically underserved region. Residents in this rural program will benefit from the school’s solid commitment to primary care and will work and train in a supportive, Family Medicine-focused environment. Our program offers cutting-edge academic medical center resources and training coupled with the unique challenges and opportunities of rural community-based clinical training in FQHCs and rural community teaching hospitals.

Residents in the Rural Family Medicine Residency at ECU Health Medical Center will spend the majority of their first year of training at ECU Health Medical Center (for most specialty inpatient training blocks) and the East Carolina University Family Medicine Center (for outpatient procedures, geriatrics, and sports medicine training).

Rural residents that MATCH to the Ahoskie site (NRMP Program Code 3057120C1) will spend the majority of their final two years of training at the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center and Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital, both located in the rural community of Ahoskie, NC. Ahoskie is a community of about 4,500 people. Ahoskie is approximately a one-hour drive north of Greenville. Ahoskie is also approximately a one-hour drive from the Tidewater Metropolitan region of Virginia (Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk). Roanoke-Chowan Community Health Center is a large FQHC system with multiple clinical sites that serve rural northeastern North Carolina. Residents in the program will have their continuity clinic based at the RCCHC main clinic and administrative headquarters located in Ahoskie, NC. ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital is a 114-bed community hospital serving the greater Hertford County area and is affiliated with multiple ECU Health Medical Group and ECU Physicians group subspecialty offices serving the people of this region.

Rural residents that MATCH to the Duplin site (NRMP Program Code 3057120C2) will spend the majority of their final two years of training at Goshen Medical Center located in Beulaville, NC and ECU Health Duplin Hospital located in Kenansville, NC. Beulaville is a rural community of about 1,300 people, and Kenansville is a rural community of about 900 people. Both of these rural communities are approximately a one-hour drive south of Greenville. Beulaville/Kenansville are also approximately a forty-five minute drive from the Wilmington/Carolina Beach metropolitan area. Goshen Medical Center is a large FQHC system with multiple clinical sites that serve rural southeastern North Carolina. Residents in the program will have their continuity clinic based at the Goshen Medical Center- Beulaville location. Vidant Duplin Hospital is an 81-bed community hospital serving the greater Duplin County area and is affiliated with multiple ECU Health Medical Group and ECU Physicians group subspecialty offices serving the people of this region.

Rural residents are exposed to the breadth of Family Medicine with a focus on complex, high-acuity patients in resource-abundant academic medical center environments and resource-scarce rural environments. Our graduates will be extraordinarily well-prepared to provide comprehensive care in a wide variety of practice settings and will enjoy the backing of a nationally known program when seeking post-graduation practice opportunities.

Our faculty are highly-experienced clinical educators who serve as mentors and provide invaluable support, instruction, and encouragement to residents. The Department of Family Medicine has 32 physician faculty, as well as faculty in pharmacy, nutrition, behavioral medicine, and research. Additionally, the rural program has incorporated experienced rural physicians into the faculty that will provide oversight, training, guidance, and mentorship to rural program residents as these faculty also will live and work in the rural communities to which the rural residents MATCH and call home.

Each faculty member has an area of clinical interest and focus, including: maternal, infant, child, and adolescent care; procedural skills; diabetes; cardiovascular disease; practice management; and rural medicine. Many of our faculty also have specialized training in women’s health, geriatrics, and sports medicine, and serve as instructors in Fellowship programs offered within the Department of Family Medicine.

Program Contact

Alyson Riddick, C-TAGME, Director of GME & MSS
ariddick@vidanthealth.com
252-847-4268

Program Director

Alyson Riddick

If you or your program would like to engage with RMTC, we’d love to connect! Join or support our collaborative to foster and sustain medica education in rural places.