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.

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.

>>> If you are a GME program or Community Health Center interested in joining COMET, please click here to learn more.

Learn more about COMPADRE’s work below: