Rural Residency Planning and Development Program

The Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) program, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration under the Department of Health and Human Services, is designed to enhance and expand health care access in rural areas by establishing new accredited rural residency programs. These programs focus on developing sustainable training pathways in key medical specialties such as family medicine, internal medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology. By supporting the creation of these programs, the initiative aims to increase the number of physicians who are trained and ultimately choose to practice in rural communities, addressing persistent physician shortages in those areas. The program provides initial start-up funding to create residency programs located primarily in rural settings as defined by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, with the requirement that residents spend more than half of their training time in these rural clinical sites. While grant funds are available for program development, long-term financial sustainability is expected to be secured through sources like Medicare, Medicaid, or other public and private funding mechanisms. Interested parties can seek more information or assistance by contacting the designated point of contact, Jason Steele, via email or phone provided by the administering agency.