Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard

Dr. Baretta R. Casey Re-Elected to AMA Council

HAZARD, Ky. (June 25, 2009) − Dr. Baretta R. Casey, director of the University of Kentucky Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard, has been re-elected to the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education.

Casey was voted to a second four-year term on June 16 during the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago. Later that day, during a reorganizational meeting, she was elected to serve as the council’s chair-elect for fiscal year 2010. Casey will serve as its chair during fiscal year 2011.

"I feel I bring a unique perspective to the council as the only member from a very rural community that trains medical students and residents," said Casey, a native of Pike County. "We work with a population of patients that has many health care disparities. I feel this is a constituency that needs to be represented on the council."

Council members are dedicated to advancing the quality of medical education in the U.S. They also seek to ensure that there is an adequate continuing supply of well-qualified physicians to meet the medical needs of the public. Casey said that task is especially crucial at this time, with calls for health care reform and a national decrease in the number of medical school applicants going into primary care.

"It is very important that we make good, sound policy that will ensure appropriate care for our patients and secure excellent training for future physicians," she said.

Casey, a former private practice physician in Pikeville, has directed the UK Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard, located at 750 Morton Blvd. in Hazard, since 2005. The Center works to improve the health of Kentucky’s Appalachian people through education, research, health care services and community engagement.

She is also a professor in the UK College of Medicine, serves as vice chair of UK’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, and is past president of both the Kentucky Medical Association and Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians.

For additional information about the center and its programs, you may call (606) 439-3557 or 1-800-851-7512.