Mikaila Wilson Calcagni, of Fayetteville, has been awarded the Arkansas Mutual Medical Student Award, a scholarship for third-year medical students at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), who want to practice primary care in rural Arkansas.
Calcagni, who comes from a family of nurses including her father and grandmother, said it was a study abroad trip to Sweden that opened her eyes to primary care. “Here, we focus so much on fixing a problem after it appears instead of trying to prevent it,” she said. “For me, primary care helps provide prevention.”
The scholarship is funded by the Arkansas Mutual Insurance Co. in partnership with the UAMS College of Medicine to encourage more medical students to enter primary care fields such as family practice, general internal medicine, and pediatrics and to practice in rural Arkansas where access to physicians is limited.
Corey Little, CEO of Arkansas Mutual Insurance Co., the only medical liability insurance provider headquartered in Arkansas, said the company is deeply committed to improving rural healthcare in the state.
More than two-thirds of Arkansas’ counties include federally designated Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas. Primary care physician shortages are projected to increase substantially as the state’s population continues to age and require more medical care, and as more Arkansans, now insured as a result of health system reform, seek primary care services.