By Arthur E. Foulkes
The Tribune-Star
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was in Terre Haute on Friday to meet with students training to become doctors serving rural areas.
“So many people want to do rural medicine,” Lugar said before meeting with dozens of medical students at the Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health. “People are being served in the western part of Indiana in a much better way” than before, he said.
As many as 80 medical students have started training at the Lugar Center, said Dr. Jim Turner, director of the center. The students will fill a big need for medical doctors in rural communities, he said.
“Only 4 percent of students graduating from medical school now want to work in a town of less than 25,000,” Turner said. About 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas, but only about 9 percent of the nation’s physicians live in those same areas, he added. “So it’s a challenge right there.” » Read the rest of the entry..