Multi-Million Dollar Gift Will Address Rural Healthcare Workforce in Alabama

Mike and Gillian Goodrich gave $10 million to UAB's Heersink School of Medicine to fund GRIT, a pipeline meant to recruit, train and retain primary care doctors in rural Alabama, where the state ranks near the bottom nationally for primary care access.

Program architect Dr. Irfan Asif says the plan spans high school outreach through medical residencies, banking on the well-documented tendency of doctors to practice near where they trained.

Alabama's rural health numbers are grim by any measure: higher uninsured rates, obesity and diabetes than urban parts of the state, with hospitals closing or cutting services.

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