Grateful Patient Helps New Doctors

Five USC Keck School of Medicine graduates who are going into the primary care field have been awarded scholarships of 25,000 dollars each.The scholarships were provided by Carlton and Nancy Spencer.Mr.Spencer has wanted to assist primary care residents since he was diagnosed with a heart condition by his primary care physician,himself a Keck School alumnus,a few years ago and referred for emergency open heart surgery.
Primary care residents typically have a mountain of medical school debt to pay off with only modest earnings.Elizabeth Ortega,one of the recipients and a family medicine resident,said it's amazing.The scholarship just makes such a big difference.Other recipients include three other family medicine residents,as well as an internal medicine resident.
These are the first Keck School scholarships designated for certain primary care residencies.Primary care is seeing a growing shortfall of doctors as medical school graduates gravitate toward the more lucrative fields,at least partially in consequence of the need to retire their student loans.
The average cost of a medical degree,including room and board,has been estimated to be on the order of 150-300,000 dollars.
Founded in 1885,Keck is the oldest medical school in Southern California.It is located on the USC Health Sciences Campus,which is just east of downtown Los Angeles,and has an enrollment of 1200 students.