alcohol and other drug problems among addiction professionals

nMorehouse School of MedicineMorehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is a historically black institution establishedto recruit and train minority and other students as physicians, biomedicalscientists, and public health practitioners who are committed to the primaryhealthcare needs of the underserved. It was established as a two-year educationalprogram in the basic sciences in April, 1975 as The School of Medicine at MorehouseCollege.The School has a unique history. In 1973, Morehouse College received a federalgrant to conduct a feasibility study on the development of a two-year program totrain students to work as primary care physicians in medically underserved areas.The study revealed the severe shortage of African-American and other minorityphysicians in the United States, particularly in Georgia, and a general shortage ofphysicians in rural areas and the inner cities of the nation.To address the critical health manpower needs of the citizens of Georgia and thosewho reside in medically underserved areas of the nation, the National Medical Associationendorsed the development of a new medical school at Morehouse College. Otherorganizations, including the Georgia State Medical Association, the Georgia GeneralAssembly, and the Carnegie Council, also supported the development of a new medicalschool at the College. Morehouse College accepted this challenge.The charter class of twenty-four students entered a two-year basic scienceprogram in September, 1978. Those students, and the subsequent two classes,transferred from The School of Medicine at Morehouse College to other medicalschools elsewhere in the country to complete their clinical training. The School ofMedicine became independent of Morehouse College in 1981 and became a fullfour-year program in 1985.nThe National Center for Primary CareThe National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) is a national resource for encouragingdoctors to pursue primary care careers, for making primary care practicemore effective, and for supporting primary care professionals working in underservedareas.The NCPC team provides training for primary care practitioners, conducts practice-basedresearch to improve health outcomes, creates protocols and tools forimproving primary care effectiveness, and undertakes policy analyses focused onways of making primary care more accessible and more effective.The mission of the National Center for Primary Care is to promote excellencein community-oriented primary health care and optimal health outcomes for allAmericans, with a special focus on underserved populations and on the eliminationof health disparities.n 58 n