Robert Bowman was suburban born and raised and trained at Baylor COM in Houston and McLennan Co FP Program in Waco where he learned first hand of the importance of intensive hands-on training as preparation for rural practice. He followed the advice of mentoring faculty development fellows while a resident at Waco and chose rural practice in preparation for a teaching career. He did rural practice in Nowata OK from 1983 - 1987 and credits the people of the town with much of his education and Tom Bruce's book Improving Rural Health with his moving toward a career in rural medical education. He taught at Nebraska and at East Tennessee State (directing the rural fellowship and initiating the Minifellowship in Rural Family Medicine where he benefited from contacts with a host of rural faculty in many different areas and programs. He has been a leader in rural medical education since 1991 at national meetings, as a chair of the STFM Group on Rural Health, and as founding chair of the National Association of Rural Medical Educators that transitioned to become the Rural Medical Educators Group at the National Rural Health Association. His most recent efforts involve the birth origins of all US physicians from all medical schools in the world. For the US schools, those of lower socioeconomic origins (older, born in the US in counties of less than 1 million, instate, lower MCAT) are particularly crucial for the distribution of physicians and health access in the nation.
Arizona - Dr. Bowman is a Professor and directs medical education courses at ATSU SOMA, serving on Admissions and Promotions Committees. SOMA admits and trains medical students focused on Community Health Centers and underserved primary care.
Nebraska - Dr. Bowman was the Director of Rural Health Education and Research for the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
He is the initiating chair of the Group on Admissions of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and a past chair of the STFM Group on Rural Health. He is the founding chair of the Rural Medical Educators Group of the National Rural Health Association. He is a Public Health Service Primary Care Health Policy Fellow. He received an award for outstanding service for his efforts assisting the PHS and the National Health Service Corps with SEARCH programs and other efforts involving medical students. He assisted the Department of Family Medicine in gaining recognition as the National Rural Health Association Outstanding Program of the Year in 2002. He established the first rural medical education faculty development program for the nation. The three years of minifellow graduates of this program have established several rural programs for medical students and residents, have built rural medical education centers, and have won Rural Health Educator Awards. The 12 minifellows have numerous leadership positions including 2 chairs of rural health, a department chair, a vice-dean, directors of rural programs, and a director of a state health department. The World of Rural Medical Education, contains 3400 files, 1400 pictures and graphics, 1200 tables, and 17000 hyperlinks including 4,000 external hyperlinks. His Physician Workforce Studies web site maintains the top Google site.
He has been a member of the National Rural Health Association Health Policy Board. Since leaving solo rural practice in 1987, he has been a consultant and advisor for the HRSA Interdisciplinary Program, several medical schools, numerous residency programs and rural faculty, and all levels of students and health advisors. He has developed and organized medical education conferences and training programs, and materials promoting rural student interest groups, rural admissions in medical schools, preceptorships, and rural graduate programs. He has published articles and has helped author association and governmental documents on the rural graduation of Family Practice Residencies, rural practice recruitment and retention, the environment of rural practice, workforce trends in rural areas, and Barriers to Rural Graduate Education. His web site is a primary source of information on rural medical education for the US and those in many other nations.
Rural Contributions of the Department of Family Medicine
Programs in Rural Medicine at ETSU