The Paul F. Dishner Rural Healthcare Loan/Scholarship Program provides need-based financial support to PBPM students.  Once accepted to the PBPM program, students are encouraged to apply for Dishner funds if they intend to practice medicine in the underserved rural areas of Appalachia, including Southwest Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Northern Tennessee. Upon completion of medical training, Dishner awardees must commit to one year of practice in a rural location.

One of seven children born in 1925 to a poor but respected and hard-working family in Duffield, Va., Dr. Dishner knew he wanted to be a doctor from the age of 9. His desire was inspired in part by his mother, Sibyl Miller Dishner, who served the Duffield community as a lay midwife at a time when the scarcity of doctors in Scott County meant she both delivered babies and tended to other health concerns of her neighbors.  Throughout his career, Dr. Dishner maintained a lifelong interest in Southern Appalachia and by establishing this fund at his death, he hoped to improve the quality of health care in the region.