SCRANTON \u2014 A collaborative initiative providing local clinical training opportunities for aspiring doctors is working in Scranton and could be a model for the rest of the country as officials here and elsewhere strive to address a physician shortage, stakeholders involved in the Northeast Pennsylvania Clinical Education Consortium said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Led by coordinator Lackawanna College, the consortium connects medical students from several colleges of osteopathic medicine in the northeast with local clinical partners \u2014 Commonwealth Health, Scranton Primary Health Care Center, the Wright Center, Allied Services and others \u2014 providing them opportunities to train at local hospitals and healthcare facilities. The goal is to create a pipeline of doctors who might plant roots and practice here, bolstering the physician workforce in a city and region with pronounced healthcare needs.<\/p>\n
![\"Philadelphia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-CONSORTIUM-0813-01.jpg\")
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean and Chief Academic Officer Peter Bidey, DO, speaks on a panel with medical students and healthcare professionals touting the Northeast Pennsylvania Clinical Education Consortium during an event at Regional Hospital of Scranton in Scranton Wednesday, August 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
The innovative model uses the community as its clinical network, where community institutions, as opposed to a particular medical school, serve as a hub for osteopathic medical training, Lackawanna College President and Chief Innovation Officer Jill Murray, Ph.D, said. Participating students spend a year in the Scranton area completing clinical rotations for their third year of osteopathic medical school.<\/p>\n
Stakeholders gathered Wednesday at Regional Hospital of Scranton to celebrate the consortium\u2019s success and tout its potential as a template for partnerships in other communities. Officially launched in 2024 with nine medical students participating in the first year, the consortium\u2019s capacity has grown since, with 36 participating this year.<\/p>\n
Mark Speicher, Ph.D., the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine\u2019s senior vice president for research, learning and innovation, touted the consortium as mutually beneficial for both the local healthcare partners and the participating osteopathic medical schools. At a time when many medical schools are facing increasing difficulty finding clinical training sites, \u201cwe don\u2019t have that problem here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-CONSORTIUM-0813-06.jpg\")
Mark R. Speicher, PhD, MHA, senior vice president of research, learning and innovation at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, touts the Northeast Pennsylvania Clinical Education Consortium during an event at Regional Hospital of Scranton Wednesday, August 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
The prospect of medical students who train here returning to the region to practice is a potential downstream benefit that excites officials and organizations with a vested interest in the long-term health of the region\u2019s medical workforce. Among them is the nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation that acquired Commonwealth Health and its Scranton and Wilkes-Barre hospitals earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the shortage and how difficult it is to recruit, and my philosophy is if we provide for a good educational environment the students will stay,\u201d said Radha Savitala, Tenor Health Foundation\u2019s president and board chair. \u201cThey will make this their home if they are not from here, and if they are from the region, (they\u2019ll) want to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Karpe, a 30-year-old medical student at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine training here through the consortium, could be a future example. His is one of three schools participating in the consortium, the others being the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I, we\u2019ve been here for a little while (and) we\u2019ve pretty much decided that we would love to stay as practicing physicians because we love the community here,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that the community definitely is in need for physicians, and \u2026 even when I was applying for medical school I remember how important it was for me to practice in a community that needs me and (where) I would feel, like, appreciated and I would feel like I\u2019m actually having an impact, as opposed to just sort of like a cog in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that there are tons of opportunities here to succeed,\u201d Karpe continued. \u201cAgain, when you collaborate, you have all these institutions coming together, you\u2019re not fighting for individual resources. You have access to this patient population, to that hospital, to these physicians, and you start to feel like a part of that community. \u2026 You go into being a practicing physician already knowing your patients, your population, where the need is and how you can contribute to that, and so all these things come together and they make me excited to stay here, to train, to be practicing in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-CONSORTIUM-0813-05.jpg\")
State Rep. Bridget M. Kosierowski speaks during an event celebrating the Northeast Pennsylvania Clinical Education Consortium at Regional Hospital of Scranton Wednesday, August 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
A local healthcare landscape made stronger by a pipeline of future physicians also promises broader benefits for the population at large.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealthcare is the reason people come to stay and live in a community,\u201d Democratic state Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, a longtime registered nurse, said Wednesday. \u201cIt is about housing, it is about education, but the most important thing is our health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speicher, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine official, identified the consortium model here as a replicable and cost effective template for other communities looking to create similar workforce pipelines to meet their own healthcare needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working hard to discover and develop more Scrantons,\u201d Speicher said. \u201cWe are working with schools and communities around the country that are in need of healthcare. We\u2019re trying to identify innovative leaders like you all \u2026 who can provide us with the leadership that is specific to that community just like happened here in Scranton.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know there is untapped community support for clinical education because you showed us there was untapped community support for clinical education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 A collaborative initiative providing local clinical training opportunities for aspiring doctors is working in Scranton and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,729],"class_list":["post-264179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}