The Indiana Graduate Medical Education board approved Indianapolis-based Indiana University School of Medicine's request to add seven residency positions July 10.
The addition will comprise residency positions in obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, pediatric psychiatry, emergency medicine and family medicine.
The state board — created by the Indiana General Assembly in 2015 to address the state's physician shortage — also voted to provide the IU School of Medicine with funding to develop residency programs at its various locations that do not yet offer them. Lafayette, Ind.-based IU Health Arnett Hospital's family medicine residency program will welcome 15 members to its inaugural class in July 2018.
Indiana University Health and Eskenazi Health, both in Indianapolis, will also provide supplemental funding to create additional residency positions statewide.
"A physician who has served his or her residency in Indiana is more likely to remain in Indiana to practice," said Michelle Howenstine, MD, senior associate dean for graduate medical education and continuing medical education at the IU School of Medicine. "With these additional residency slots, we'll make headway toward filling the need that Hoosier communities have for physicians."