Dr. Clarence Sparks describes the UNT Health Fort Worth’s rural Primary Care Pathway as “nearly invaluable” for his career.
The university’s program partners with local community colleges to create a direct path to medical school for would-be doctors in rural communities.
Sparks, a postgraduate medical resident at Loma Linda University Health in California, was the program’s first graduate in 2023. Given the difficulties around costs, travel for college education, and the difficulties cracking into medical schools, the pathway is a life-changer.
“I don’t think I could’ve successfully navigated the medical school process without their help,” he said.
UNT Health, which started the initiative in 2015 alongside Midland College, is now expanding such efforts by adding a pathway for students from Weatherford College.
UNT Health’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine is partnering with the Weatherford school to launch its first cohort in the fall, growing the health science center’s support for Texas rural communities while addressing the shortage of primary care physicians.
Participating students will spend two years at Weatherford College before transferring to UNT Health for their final year of undergraduate studies. They then will start medical school at TCOM, which includes a clerkship during the latter years at a partnering hospital in the rural community, said Dr. Maria Crompton, director of rural medical education at UNT Health.
“A lot of students, it might be their first time going to college. They might not be coming from families with physicians in them,” Crompton said. “The pathway helps along the way with structured support and built-in shadowing opportunities.”
Nearly 90% of Texas counties are primary care shortage areas that don’t have enough physicians to provide sufficient care, according to the policy nonprofit Texas 2036.
All primary care specialties, from family care to psychiatry, are projected to have shortages in the state until 2032, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
That reflects a nationwide trend. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis estimates a shortage of 70,610 primary care doctors by 2038.
The scarcity of primary care providers hits rural communities the most.
“It’s rough as far as getting seats filled,” Sparks said of primary care. “It’s not the most lucrative. It’s definitely not the most glamorous. There’s other options within medicine that tend to have equivocal hours and better pay.”
Weatherford College is the first addition to the initiative since it started over a decade ago.
Crompton said the intentional growth of the program is important for good partnerships. She noted TCOM won’t add schools to the pathway without making sure the infrastructure in place can support students through the entire multiyear journey.
Training sites — partnering medical systems in various fields from family medicine to obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics to psychiatry — are needed for students’ education.
“We need the communities to be on board with that promise,” she said. “Holding up that piece of the agreement to be able to support the students.”
However, the goal for TCOM is not stopping at two schools, Crompton said.
“We need to increase the rural health care workforce,” she added. “Being able to see students come through and be supported and successful in the pathway, then graduate and return — that’s the goal.”
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
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