1st tribally affiliated medical school in US graduates inaugural class of doctors

Mackenzee Thompson says she is familiar with being the "first." She recently earned another distinction. This year, the 26-year-old enrolled member of Choctaw Nation became the first doctor in her family, graduating from the inaugural class of the first tribally affiliated medical school in the country.

The Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine held its commencement ceremony on May 16 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the first graduating class from the new campus at the Cherokee Nation was an integral part of it.

Thompson attended Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at Cherokee Nation, which opened in 2020. The school is the product of a visionary partnership between Oklahoma State University and Cherokee Nation to create the desperately needed doctors in rural Oklahoma.

According to a 2018 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the overall vacancy rate for medical providers in the Indian Health Services (IHS) is 25%. "Recruiting and retaining top talent," said Chuck Hoskin Jr., the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, "is really challenging in the rural parts of the country."

Chief Hoskin told ABC News that he hopes that building a medical school at Cherokee Nation "will help increase the number of doctors that not only learn to be doctors here, but stay and become doctors here."

So far, Thompson is proving Hoskin right. Thompson told ABC News she will continue her medical training "right across the parking lot from my school," at Cherokee Nation Family Medicine Residency. She plans to live and work in rural Oklahoma, as do most of her friends.

Thompson's graduating class is 20% Native American, compared to the national average of 0.3% American Indian/Alaska Native practicing physicians. As Thompson and her friends fan out across Oklahoma, they do so where 16% of the population identified as Native American, according to United States Census Bureau data.

"You want institutions, including medical institutions, to look like the community that they're serving," said Chief Hoskin.

Cultural competency is a required class at her school, said Thompson. "There's so many cultural, socioeconomic factors that go into your health. And I think having a provider that understands is very important," she continued.

Leading this new school has not been without challenges, said Dr. Natasha Bray, the campus dean. Dealing with construction delays was the easy part, Bray said.

"The hard part is building the learning environment and recruiting faculty to a rural community," she said.

An ambitious effort to train doctors from more diverse walks of life is paired with deep support from OSU, said Thompson. Six students from her initial cohort did not graduate with her for a variety of reasons. For students who haven't had the same educational opportunities and resources as other medical school students, "this level and rigor of school is often difficult," she said.

But "OSU does an amazing job of supporting you while you're here in medical school," said Thompson. Four of Thompson's classmates plan to graduate in the coming year, said Bray.

Creating a first-of-its-kind medical school is only one part of Chief Hoskin's vision for healthcare in Cherokee Nation.

"There's something particularly important about Indian country asserting control over its own health care destiny," he said.

"That can take lots of forms," Chief Hoskin said, including shifting resources.

One example is when the tribe sold its private jet to pay for new healthcare facilities.

"That was great symbolism," said Chief Hoskin. "What's most important is we're a tribe that continues to prioritize healthcare."

He added that the tribe is spending $400 million to build a new hospital, after spending $200 million to create a new outpatient facility, and $40 million to build the medical school in Cherokee Nation.

"​​The United States is a billion dollars behind. That's a billion dollars with a B, on health care infrastructure in Indian country," Chief Hoskin said. "We're fortunate that we don't have to wait on the government of the United States or we would be waiting a long time and people would suffer."

Chief Hoskin hopes the future includes more "firsts."

"The next time the United States meets its commitment on health care for Indian country will be the first time," he said.