More Than a Medical School

Graduating its fifth class of osteopathic physicians, NYITCOM-Arkansas is delivering on its mission to increase the number of physicians and reduce healthcare inequity in the Delta region.

^{Shane Speights teaches students in a medical simulation lab. PHOTO: PHILIP THOMAS}

As an internist in the outpatient clinic at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro, Ark., Paige Parnell (D.O. ’20) is acutely aware of the physician shortage in her native state. “We see such a big population of people in the Delta,” she says. “I’ve got patients who come from southeast Missouri, from south Arkansas, and from little towns all over.”

But she also recognizes the impact being made by the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM-Arkansas), which opened in 2016 specifically to address the state’s physician shortage. Parnell was a member of the first class. After completing residency training in internal medicine last year at NEA Baptist—a program started by one of NYITCOM’s key clinical partners as part of a collective effort to increase the number of residency programs in the state—she joined the staff.

Previously, only two physicians were working in the outpatient clinic. Parnell is one of four residency program graduates who stayed on at NEA Baptist after completing their training. “Patients used to struggle to see any sort of primary care physician, just because there weren’t that many,” she says. “But the addition of the medical school and increase in residency programs is really helping alleviate this shortage of physicians and medical care.”

This article originally appeared in the fall 2024/winter 2025 issue of New York Institute of Technology Magazine.

By Renée Gearhart Levy