By TRINA THOMAS for the Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) — A program designed to provide better access to rural healthcare is helping both rural communities and new doctors.

Rural Illinois Medical Student Assistance Program Conference and Program Manager Donna Gallivan says the RIMSAP program helps combat the expected decline of medical professionals by the year 2034.

The RIMSAP program was established in 1948 but has seen a new present-day wave as it attracts doctors to Illinois country, helps students pay for a medical degree and provides easier access to medical care for patients.

“Some of our Farmers … down in Southern Illinois, they may have to drive to the St. Louis area to get tests done and stuff like that because there are not the rural doctors,” Gallivan told The Center Square. 

Sponsored by the Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois State Medical Society, the RIMSAP program assists students with recommendations and loan assistance. Application requirements include being an Illinois resident in their fourth year of an undergraduate program who wants to specialize in a primary health care field for medical school. 

Residencies allowed include family practice, internal medicine, OB-GYN, pediatrics, combined internal medicine and pediatrics, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, emergency medicine, anesthesiology and psychiatry.

“There’s quite a few doctors in the state of Illinois that we need to get back here and get them established within our rural communities,” Gallivan said. 

Students participating in the RIMSAP program may select a town if that community has “demonstrated a physician need and serves a rural populace,” as the RIMSAP website states.

“With our website program, we’re asking that they come back and stay in the state of Illinois,” Gallivan said.

The students’ selected town must gain approval through the RIMSAP Board, according to the RIMSAP website.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, there will likely be a primary and specialty care physician shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 by 2034.