Three years ago, Ladson Gaddy-Dubac, MD, stepped into her new career as the first ObGyn in rural Franklin, North Carolina. Starting a new practice on her own at Angel Medical Center was a little unnerving, but Gaddy-Dubac felt prepared from her residency at MAHEC.

“Coming to an area with limited resources can be frightening, but having the relationship with MAHEC and knowing I had a team there to help me with high-risk patients was reassuring,” she said.

The area embraced the new practice it had needed for so long. As patient volume increased, another ObGyn, Carole Peterson, MD, was hired, and in 2015, Beth England, MD, another MAHEC graduate, joined. Sixty percent of MAHEC residents stay in western North Carolina to practice, helping fill the shortage of primary care physicians.

Gaddy-Dubac also takes in fourth-year MAHEC residents to do rotations where they learn, just as she did during her own residency, how to provide comprehensive care in a limited resource setting.