SAMP a unique partnership with much promise

By Lethbridge Herald on December 19, 2024.

Dr. Richard Buck
SAMP

Partnerships, collaborations, years of advocacy and a mountain of behind-the-scenes work have created the framework of the new Southern Alberta Medical Program (SAMP), of which I am fortunate to have been appointed Regional Lead.

Recently, my appointment was announced on the heels of the landmark Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between the University of Lethbridge and University of Calgary, and the funding promise from the provincial government.

 While the announcements are the big touchstone events that deservedly bring attention to SAMP and highlight the progress being made towards establishing physician training here in Lethbridge, the ongoing work that paves the way for these milestones is remarkable.

I come to this position having worked for both the University of Calgary and University of Alberta in a training and supervisory capacity, all while practicing here in Lethbridge within the Emergency Department of Chinook Regional Hospital. Some might be surprised to know that local doctors have been supervising student residents from the UCalgary and UAlberta medical schools for years.

What makes SAMP different is the unique partnership that has been established between ULethbridge and UCalgary, with both universities contributing to program delivery.

 What also distinguishes this program is the focus: one that is clearly set on recruiting and enrolling learners who are likely to set up in regional and rural practice upon graduation from their residency. 

As a distributed medical education model, SAMP fosters a partnership between the UCalgary Cumming School of Medicine and ULethbridge to develop a regional training centre for medical students to complete all their medical education right here in southern Alberta.

In the past, rural and regional students who once had to travel to large urban centres to take their medical training and residency would often not return to their rural beginnings.

 Worse yet, some with an interest in medicine would not even pursue medical training because they did not want to leave their region in the first place.

Talk amongst my colleagues of establishing a regional medical training program has been going on for years and the advocacy for a program designed to train and then retain physicians in southern Albertra has been tireless.

 I thank all those individuals who believed in this model for helping to make it happen.

We see it every day — people in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and throughout southern Alberta need physicians who understand the unique needs of our region’s residents. 

Indigenous communities want physicians who are Indigenous or have been trained in ways that understand and respond to the needs of their communities. 

This distributed medical education approach has worked in other provinces and other countries, resulting in more physicians practicing in rural communities. 

It’s why the Southern Alberta Medical Program holds so much promise, and why I’m so excited to play a role in making it happen.

We still have much work to be done, and I’m confident with the support of our local doctors/preceptors and many community partners, it will be a program of which we can all be proud.

Dr. Richard Buck, MD, Regional Lead, Southern Alberta Medical Program