October 30, 2007

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — D. Matthew Fentress, a fourth-year student at the UC Davis School of Medicine, has received a $10,000, Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship from the American Medical Association Foundation.

The foundation chose a total of 12 fourth-year medical students from around the United States who had been nominated by their school deans. The scholarships are intended to help defray medical school expenses.

Fentress, originally from Pennsylvania, served as student co-director of the Shifa Community Clinic, one of five clinics in the Sacramento area, staffed by UC Davis medical students, which provide free medical care to the uninsured. After finishing his term as co-director, Fentress continued to work at Shifa and, last spring, helped create a Chronic Care Continuity Clinic. The goal of this clinic is to provide more comprehensive, ongoing care to patients with chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, and to improve the level of medical education by permitting fourth-year students to follow their own panel of patients over a 12-month period.

Last year, Fentress co-founded an elective introductory course on interpretive medicine for first- and second-year students. Offered for credit, the course brought in experts on acupuncture, herbal medicine and alternative medicine to discuss the interface of conventional Western medicine with complementary and alternative medicine.

Fentress intends to work in communities with large segments of indigent and medically underserved populations. The nomination for Fentress, citing his early entry into the work world and subsequent exposure to a wide variety of people in different settings, contributed to “several noteworthy personal attributes.” Among them are “an exceptionally strong work ethic” and a “repeatedly demonstrated dedication to serving the ill and vulnerable. He's a leader and problem-solver who adeptly finds common ground for diverse people to work together.”

The AMA Foundation has made it a priority to help medical students handle the rising cost of medical education. The Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarships were created in 2004 to provide financial assistance to medical students facing spiraling medical school debt. On average, medical students in the United States graduate with more than $130,000 in debt.