RRH becomes largest clinical training site for nation’s largest medical school

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — A major educational expansion is coming to Rochester Regional Health and one of its partners.

Rochester Regional Health (RRH) announced a new 10-year deal with the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), the nation’s largest medical school, in a move organizers say will make the health care system LECOM’s largest clinical campus.

"We’re going to partner with them as the largest medical school in the country, as the largest clinical campus across all the clinical campuses, they have to make certain that we continue to train the next generation of physicians," Dr. Eric Bieber, president and CEO of RRH said.

The collaboration will allow for students from the region to take pre-med classes at schools affiliated with LECOM, then complete their training with RRH.

Jonathan Brach is a 2019 LECOM graduate and is currently the chief resident at United Memorial Medical Center Family Medicine Residency in Batavia.

"I’m grateful to have the opportunity to stay on as faculty for my family medicine program after I graduate," Brach said. "I look forward to continue to teach residents and help them become medical students in the future."

RRH says the partnership will place roughly 100 third- and fourth-year students on clinical rotation across the health system each month.

Besides primary care physicians, officials with RRH say the region desperately needs future medical students striving to become behavioral health specialists. This partnership is seen as an investment as well as filling the gaps where it’s needed the most.

"This is going to be an amazing way for people in our community to achieve careers that they may not have otherwise been able to achieve," Dr. Richard Alweis, associate chief medical officer of education at RRH said.