On Jan. 29, 2020, Michael D. Dake, MD, senior vice president for University of Arizona Health Sciences, announced the 29 inaugural recipients of the new Primary Care Physician Scholarship. Eight students are from the College of Medicine – Phoenix and 21 students are from the College of Medicine – Tucson.

Arizona faces alarming physician shortages, especially in primary care professions, and particularly in its rural and urban underserved areas. To create the next generation of primary care physicians (PCPs), the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix are covering tuition for students who commit to practice primary care or another designated critical-access specialty in an underserved community in Arizona for up to four years, depending on how many years they received the scholarship. Tomorrow’s physicians can practice medicine without the burden of medical-school debt, and rural and other underserved Arizonans will enjoy increased access to PCPs in the coming years.