Caring About—and Caring for—Iowa Communities

Maggie Mangold, MDLike many Iowans, Maggie Mangold, MD, is instilled with a sense of pride—in her family, her profession, and her community.

So it was a natural fit when Mangold chose to return to her hometown of Vinton to begin her family medicine practice.

Since her arrival in July 2010 at the Vinton Family Medical Clinic, Mangold has embraced her role. She enjoys the challenge of treating the wide variety of illnesses and conditions that family doctors see every day. She cares for 2-year-olds and 100-year-olds and every age in between. And she loves establishing the doctor-patient relationships that will continue for years to come.

“I’ve always had an interest in helping people,” Mangold says. “I get a lot of job satisfaction working in a small town and giving back to my community.”

Forging Successful Partnerships

Mangold’s story is one example of successful partnerships between doctors and the Iowa communities they serve. And fostering these “win-win” situations is key to the overall mission of University of Iowa Health Care.

When Mangold graduated from the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine in 2007, she was one of 71 students—half of her graduating class—to choose medical residency training in primary care specialties such as family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. For each of the graduating medical school classes from 2008 through 2011, at least four out of 10 students chose primary care for residency training.

It’s a distinction for which the UI Carver College of Medicine is nationally recognized; it is consistently listed in the top 10 for primary care in the yearly U.S.News & World Report rankings of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

Ties with Programs Around the State

Mangold completed her family medicine residency through the Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation, one of six UI-affiliated Regional Medical Education Centers (including Davenport, Des Moines, Mason City, Sioux City, and Waterloo) and home to one of eight residency programs that comprise the Iowa Family Medicine Residency Network, also administered through the UI.

These are just two of the numerous programs managed by the UI Carver College of Medicine Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs (OSCEP). Established in 1974, OSCEP develops and coordinates the college’s outreach programs for medical education and community service. Its work is centered on building relationships and maintaining partnerships among the university, Iowa communities, and health care providers.

OSCEP is truly unique in terms of its longevity and scope over the past four decades. No other state or region has access to information of similar quality, complexity, or currency.

Half Are Hawkeyes

More than 50 percent of all the doctors practicing in Iowa have a connection to the University of Iowa—as a graduate of the Carver College of Medicine or UI-affiliated residency or fellowship program. More than 700 Iowa physicians are volunteer clinical teachers who contribute instruction to UI medical education.

The value in maintaining these connections across the state is immeasurable, notes Roger Tracy, OSCEP director and assistant dean in the UI Carver College of Medicine.

“It’s good for the university; it’s good for the state’s medical practices and health care systems,” Tracy says. “Ultimately, it’s good for patients in that we produce well-educated and well-trained health care providers for our state.”

Like Maggie Mangold, who knew she wanted to become a doctor as early as her middle school years. She’s glad she made the decision to come back to Vinton, for both her profession and her family—husband Jeff, who’s also from Vinton, and sons Hugh, 6, and Reid, 2.

“It just feels right,” she says, and it’s gratifying to know that I made the right choice. I plan on being here for my patients for a long time.”

Examples of OSCEP Activities

  • Faculty development workshops for volunteer faculty physicians at the Regional Medical Education Centers
  • Job-shadowing experiences with community primary care physicians for first-year medical students as part of the college’s “Foundations of Clinical Practice” course
  • A community-based primary care clerkship, a four-week requirement for third-year medical students
  • Recruitment assistance and related services to 103 communities in 78 of Iowa’s 99 counties last year, through its Medical Practice Development Service
  • The Rural Physician Support Program, through which doctors-in-training cover rural practices and community hospitals during physician absences
  • A Iowa Medical Practice Opportunities Directory that gives medical residents information on job openings in selected specialties; a similar directory is published for physician assistants and advance registered nurse practitioners
  • The Iowa Health Professions Inventory, a longitudinal database tracking all of Iowa’s active doctors, dentists, pharmacists, advance practice nurses, and physician assistants
  • Annual workforce supply reports for each of Iowa’s major health professions—describing the supply of doctors and medical specialty trends in the state, for example, and advising policymakers on how to sustain and grow Iowa’s physician workforce