GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – 16 new residents are now welcomed into Memorial Health System, marking 54 medical residents total with Memorial.

This is the fifth class of Family Medicine and the third class of Internal Medicine through the Graduate Medical Education program.

The program began in 2019 with the goal of bringing in more physicians to South Mississippi.

Memorial Graduate Medical Education Director Dr. Wayne Latack says, “Research has shown that after residency training that roughly 50% of the graduates end up working in and seeing patients in around a 50-mile radius of wherever they trained. That’s a huge pipeline that we are trying to capture to bring more physicians to South Mississippi.”

Dr. Latack adds that the hospital has been able to keep five residents within the first two years of the program.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the leading cause of death in the Magnolia State is heart disease.

Resident Internal Medicine Physician Dr. Josh Luke says these new graduates already know how to treat the community for these illnesses.

Dr. Luke says, “If we’re training physicians like the ones who have just graduated, they’ve spent that past three years getting to know our patient population. They kind of understand the area, the lifestyle, the culture, the things that contribute to diabetes, hypertension, obesity.”

As each physician coat was placed on these doctors, that means more physicians being trained right here on the coast, and some are already hoping to continue their time here.

Originally from the East Coast, new graduate Dr. Franklin Turner says South Mississippi has made him feel right at home.

Dr. Turner says, “The area is amazing. We’re overlooking the water right now. It’s not urban area where I’m, like, in an apartment. It feels like a community here.”

These residents will start rotations on July 1.