PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
Dr. Tiffani Maycock Forges A Path in Rural Medicine
Dr. Maycock is a family physician with more than 20 years of clinical experience. She currently serves as program director for the Selma Family Medicine Residency Program.
February 13, 2023
Tiffani N. Maycock, DO, MS
In 2021, the ABFM Board of Directors selected Dr. Tiffani Maycock for a 5-year term on the Board, in part due to her unique perspective on the issues facing family physicians practicing in rural communities, as well as her experience
in directing a family medicine residency program aimed at preparing future family physicians to serve similar populations.
Dr. Maycock is a family physician with more than 20 years of clinical experience. She currently serves as program director for the Selma Family Medicine Residency Program, where she is also an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Medicine. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to recognizing Dr. Maycock’s work to improve the lives of patients, their families, and her community.
After earning her DO degree, Master of Science, and completing a manipulative medicine fellowship at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine,
Dr. Maycock returned to Alabama for a one-year surgical obstetrics fellowship at UAB in Huntsville. It was there she took over the community medicine rotation.
"I realized that the family physician in a rural community must be able to do it all,” she said. “In rural areas, physicians must be trained in the full spectrum of primary care so they can provide for all of the needs within their communities."
Dr. Maycock acknowledged that rural practice in Alabama looks a bit different than one might experience in the Midwest or Pacific Northwest. “Where I am, in the “black belt” of America, is a very unique rural setting. Our patients experience challenges related to the social determinants of health they face, which result in different health issues that need to be addressed. It is also harder to find faculty to come here and train the residents in my program. Not everyone wants to start a career in the rural south.”
At UAB, Dr. Maycock took over the community medicine rotation within the Family Medicine Program and grew it to expand the number of patient benefits. She wrote new curriculum, coordinated health fairs, lectures and screenings, and worked with local partners to improve health care knowledge.
After a brief move to Virginia, Dr. Maycock and her family returned to Alabama to lead UAB Selma’s Family Medicine Residency Program. It turned out to be the perfect fit, and she’s still there to this day.
“In addition to my program director duties, I teach residents as they take care of patients in the hospital, the clinic, at the nursing home and on home visits,” she explained, noting that her program is currently training 16 residents.
Outside of the residency program, Dr. Maycock is making her presence felt throughout the community in numerous ways that improve patient health. For example, she was instrumental in adding Hospitalist services to the Vaughan Regional Medical Center, where she served as Hospitalist Director for over four years. “We expanded personnel to meet the needs of the patients, hired nurse practitioners, and created a fellowship to provide a unique opportunity for residents to come here and train in a rural hospital setting.”
The fellowship hit a snag during the Covid-19 pandemic, as some new hospitalists weren’t fully trained in the necessary procedures to be rural family physicians. “There are a lot of inpatient procedures we must do because there aren’t resources available to call someone else. So, I recognized that we needed to train rural hospitalists who could go to a hospital anywhere and practice.”
To make that goal a reality, Dr. Maycock and her residency program joined the Rural Training Track Collaborative, an initiative designed to sustain and expand health professions education in rural places. “The collaborative is where we exchange ideas and resources so that practicing physicians can receive broader and more relevant training for rural practice, and we can identify medical students and residents who want to practice in a rural setting.”
Dr. Maycock is one of the first Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine to serve on the ABFM Board of Directors. “It’s been an eye-opening experience. I’ve learned more about my profession, which allows me to come back to my residents and tell them more about the awesome profession they are joining. Some of them look at me like I am crazy, but it’s fun!”
In her free time, Dr. Maycock and her family love to be outside, visiting state parks, hiking, and camping. ABFM is delighted to have Dr. Maycock join our Board of Directors to help lead the profession in a way that better serves more physicians, patients, and their families.
