The Appalachian Osteopathic Postgraduate Training Institute Consortium (A- OPTIC) is accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) as a consortium of graduate medical residency programs, hospitals, and colleges of osteopathic medicine. As the founding academic member of A-OPTIC, the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine (KYCOM) has demonstrated its dedication to training future primary care physicians. The mission of A-OPTIC is to promote and enhance the quality and capacity of health professional education to meet the needs of frontier, rural, and other medically underserved areas of the United States, with an emphasis on graduate medical education to ensure an adequate supply of primary care physicians.

As an academic sponsor, A-OPTIC supports community-based rural and frontier residency programs in the areas of research, faculty development, and curriculum; as well as administrative oversight to ensure continued program accreditation and quality improvement.

A-OPTIC has been approved as a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Teaching Health Center (THC), for one site in Morehead Kentucky. In addition, A-OPTIC operates the Frontier Rural Innovations Network, a Practice- Based Research Network (PBRN) focusing on research to improve rural healthcare processes to attain the triple aim of improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care. The innovations network develops knowledge to improve the lives of residents of frontier and rural areas and creates a training atmosphere that supports and values scholarly inquiry and quality improvement.

Additional information concerning A-OPTIC and its residency programs and affiliates may be found at its website, http://a-optic.org/.