PORTLAND, Maine – Maine Medical Center (MMC) held its eleventh annual Maine Track Celebration event on Saturday, April 29, recognizing the 39 Maine Track medical students who will graduate from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston in May. After completing the program that includes classroom instruction in Boston with community-based practice in Maine, this year’s class will begin residencies this summer, 12 of them at MMC.
Caleb Swanberg, MD, a Maine Track alumnus and the chief of medicine at Cary Medical Center in Caribou, gave the keynote address. Dr. Swanberg, who received Maine Track’s Roger A. Renfrew Rural Teaching Award in 2021, said teaching Maine Track students has been one of his favorite parts of practicing rural medicine. He impressed upon students the importance of both believing in themselves and taking care of themselves as they start their careers.
“It is a tremendous honor to address the Maine Track Class of 2023 at their Celebration,” Dr. Swanberg said. “As a student, the Maine Track provided me with so much – a wonderful medical education, faculty who have become lifelong advisors and friendships that I will always cherish. As a physician, teaching Maine Track students has been a true privilege.”
The Maine Track program is a partnership between MMC and Tufts formed 15 years ago to help address the shortage of doctors in Maine, provide financial assistance to aspiring medical students with a connection to Maine and develop an innovative curriculum focused on community-based education. MMC’s annual Maine Track celebration marks the local recognition of the medical school students, who also will take part in a graduation ceremony with Tufts on May 21.
“This Maine Track class has witnessed significant changes and challenges to the health care system over the past three years,” said Linda Chaudron, MD, MaineHealth Vice President of Medical Education. “I look forward to seeing our students continue to meet those challenges as doctors with the innovative thinking and compassion for patients they have demonstrated in medical school.”
When this year’s cohort graduates from Tufts, 401 physicians will have graduated from the Maine Track program since it began. As of 2022, 45 percent of Maine Track graduates who have completed their residencies are practicing medicine in Maine.
“I am so honored to be a part of the Maine Track Class of 2023,” said Alison Bryant, a candidate for MD and the class speaker for the class of 2023. My classmates continue to inspire me every day with their commitment to service and medicine. It has been such a wonderful opportunity to learn medicine in my adopted home state of Maine, and I feel so fortunate that I will be able to continue to serve the people of Maine. Like the sign says, ‘worth a visit, worth a lifetime!’”
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About Maine Medical Center
Maine Medical Center (MMC), recognized as a Best Regional Hospital by U.S. News and World Report for 2022-2023, is a complete health care resource for the people of Greater Portland and the entire state, as well as northern New England. Incorporated in 1868, MMC is the state’s largest medical center, licensed for 700 beds and employing more than 9,600 people. MMC's unique role as both a community hospital and a referral center requires an unparalleled depth and breadth of services, including an active educational program and a world-class biomedical research center. As a nonprofit institution, Maine Medical Center provides nearly 23 percent of all the charity care delivered in Maine. MMC is part of the MaineHealth system, a growing family of health care services in northern New England. For more information, visit www.mmc.org.