U of A and Gila River Health Care Launch Landmark Tribal Land Medical Program
September 11, 2026
Miguel Sallard
GRIN
CHANDLER, Ariz. — The Gila River Indian Community and University of Arizona are moving ahead with a landmark plan to create the nation’s first MD-granting medical school branch on tribal land — a project tribal leaders say is historic and sorely needed. But with details of the initiative still emerging, one question remains unanswered: Who will be eligible for the full-tuition scholarships that will fund each student admitted to the new program?
The partnership, announced August 18, creates the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix Regional Medical Branch in Sacaton, where 10 students a year will train in the tribally run health system of Gila River Health Care.
GRHC has committed more than $25 million to support faculty positions, educational infrastructure and full-tuition scholarships for students in the accelerated three-year primary care track through 2034.
The program is designed to help address long-standing shortages of physicians in Tribal, rural and underserved communities — shortages that have worsened as Arizona’s population continues to grow. The Indian Health Service had a 38% physician vacancy rate in fiscal 2024, versus a 30% vacancy rate for all health care providers, according to the Government Accountability Office. The number of American Indian doctors is still very low nationwide. In 2024, they made up just 0.3% of active physicians in the United States.
“The initiative is a purposeful step toward community-based medical education,” University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella said. “Tribal and rural communities have some of the country’s most significant unmet primary care needs,” Garimella said. “This partnership to create the first medical school branch in the country within a Tribal Nation will train physicians in an accelerated three-year MD program, support them with full scholarships to free them of debt burden and provide residency opportunities that anchor them to the places and patients they know. “That is how you build a physician workforce that stays in the communities that need them the most.”
Students accepted into the program will spend their first 18 months of foundational medical education in Phoenix before transferring to Sacaton for 18 months of clinical training at GRHC. Under faculty supervision, they will treat patients in a variety of clinical settings, learning firsthand how history, culture and social factors shape health outcomes in Native communities.
“This program is a generational shift,” Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said. “For too long, many of our young people who dreamed of becoming doctors had to leave home to pursue that dream,” said Lewis. “This partnership with the University of Arizona is changing that. “It allows them to learn, train and develop their careers right here in the community where they can make a real difference for the people they serve.”
GRHC Board Chairman Robert Pablo echoed the urgency of the effort. “There’s a real challenge for rural health hospitals to recruit trained professionals to come and work in their communities,” said Pablo. “We are very lucky to launch this first-of-its-kind partnership… which will set a starting ground for these young doctors to jumpstart their careers.”
Although the program’s stated mission is to serve Tribal health systems and increase the number of Native people in medicine, neither GRHC nor the university has said whether the full‑tuition scholarships will be limited to members of the Gila River Indian Community, open to students from other Tribal Nations, or open to any student who is admitted to the program. The lack of clarity has prompted questions from prospective students, educators and community members trying to understand who will benefit from the historic investment.
The first group of students is due to start training in summer 2027.