Rural Medicine in Traverse City
Since 2009, MSU College of Human Medicine students have been serving the Traverse City and surrounding communities, completing their clinical rotations throughout the north with Munson Healthcare and additional partnering hospitals.
An inside look at Traverse City's Rural Community Health Program
While few physicians make house calls these days, College of Human Medicine students in Traverse City take the old practice to an extreme. They see patients on the streets, in the missions, even in a rural encampment.
“Our whole mantra is going to the people,” said David Klee, MD, community assistant dean for the College of Human Medicine’s Traverse City Campus. “We go to them. We see them tent side.”
After completing their first two years in East Lansing or Grand Rapids, the third- and fourth-year students in the college’s Rural Community Health Program spend much of their time in the Northern Michigan hospitals operated by Munson Healthcare, MyMichigan-Alpena and Corewell Health-Ludington.
“And then you combine that with the opportunity to work in more-rural settings,” Klee said, “so they get a lot of firsthand experience. When you’re working in a small community and you have a trauma case come in, you have to be able to respond. Our students are right up at the table, rolling their sleeves up, and practicing medicine.”
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