California Oregon Medical Education & Training Collaborative for Underserved Communities

Our vision is to strengthen the medical workforce and reduce health disparities among urban, rural, and tribal communities by leveraging a powerful regional coalition.

 

What is COMET?

COMET is a robust collaborative between two medical schools, and over 30 graduate medical education (GME) programs and community health centers throughout Northern California and Oregon. 

It builds on six years of network building through COMPADRE (California Oregon Medical Partnership to Address Rural Disparities in Education and Health). COMPADRE emerged out of our concern to address persistent physician shortages in underserved urban, rural, and tribal communities that result in health disparities due to community members’ limited access to adequate health care. Funded by an AMA Reimagining Residency Initiative in 2019, COMPADRE aimed to transform the physician workforce by training physicians who are better prepared, more equitably distributed across the region, and who are deeply connected to underserved communities.

For more information about the AMA Reimagining Residency project, please visit  http://changemeded.org.

Data Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/

COMPADRE set out to break down historical silos, shifting the center of gravity in medical education from large academic institutions to the communities that need physicians the most. Over the past six years, COMPADRE has:

  • Built a robust repository of shared resources for educator development, curriculum, admissions, and wellbeing

  • Developed and maintained a COMPADRE Community of Practice 

  • Created new clinical rotations for students committed to underserved communities

  • Welcomed six new residency programs and two community health centers into our network in the last two years 

  • Matched 19 students—half of our first three graduating classes—into COMPADRE residency programs, and expanded participation to over 150 medical students

As COMPADRE grant funding ends in September 2025, we are proud to introduce our new name and evolving identity: COMET – California Oregon Medical Education and Training Collaborative for Underserved Communities.

COMET represents movement, momentum, and a continued trajectory toward innovation in medical education and health equity. While the COMPADRE grant is ending, our relationships, purpose, and values remain strong. We know that real change doesn’t end with a grant cycle—it lives in the people who carry this work forward. COMET is not just a continuation of COMPADRE—it is an opportunity to imagine something new, together.  

If you are interested in future vision meetings to imagine the future of COMET, please enter your email address here.

COMET Co-Design Phase (2026)

After listening to stakeholders for the past 3 months, COMET is undertaking a phase focused on collective learning, shared leadership, and intentional growth.

From February–July 2026, the COMET Collaborative will engage in a 6-month co-design process to explore what COMET could become and whether there is sufficient shared commitment to move into a longer-term implementation phase. This work builds on the foundation of COMPADRE and reflects feedback from partners who expressed a desire to collaborate more deeply, include learners as co-designers, and align efforts across institutions.

Additionally, we warmly welcome new partners and new voices, including institutions and organizations that have not previously been involved in COMPADRE or COMET, but who are committed to physician workforce development in underserved communities in California and Oregon. 

Our Approach: The Mothership + Pods Model

This phase uses a collaborative structure designed to support participation without overburdening partners:

  • The Mothership: A small coordinating group that supports alignment, communication, and shared decision-making across the collaborative.

  • Pods (Working Groups): Four topic-focused working groups that meet monthly and do the core co-design work.

2026 Pods

Each pod includes faculty, learners, and partners from across institutions and will discuss:

  • Community & Connection – annual conferences, communities of practice, and relationship-building within the coalition 

  • Education & Training Opportunities – rural and underserved rotations, specialty exposure, and learner support

  • Mentorship & Pathways – student-to-resident-to-faculty mentorship and pathway development

  • Scholarship & Visibility – collaborative projects, dissemination, and national presence

Pods are co-led by faculty and learners, modeling shared leadership and mentorship.

Goals of This Phase

By July 2026, each pod will:

  • Identify priorities for the next 6, 12, and 24 months

  • Assess feasibility and resource needs

  • Propose concrete, actionable next steps

  • Clarify what centralized support a collaborative structure could provide

At the conclusion of this phase, COMET partners will collectively decide whether there is enough momentum, capacity, and shared vision to move forward into implementation—or whether to pause and reassess.

This phase is intentionally exploratory and low-stakes, designed to ensure that any future growth is thoughtful, inclusive, and sustainable.

Learn more about COMPADRE’s work below: 

 

COMPADRE: Regionally-Focused Medical Education in California and Oregon