The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has announced grants totaling $9.4 million in support of efforts to train and support rural healthcare providers in Montana.

The awards include $4.6 million to the Montana Department of Health in support of its Simulation in Motion Montana program, which will employ eighteen-wheelers containing simulation learning labs and high-fidelity patient simulators to train rural healthcare providers and emergency medical service personnel. The trust also awarded two grants totaling $4.3 million to the Billings Clinic in support of its new Helmsley Rural Healthcare Scholars program, a research residency program that pairs medical residents with faculty mentors. The program will provide internal medicine residents with an opportunity to experience a comprehensive and immersive four-week rural rotation. In addition, the trust will provide up to $500,000 in three-to-one matching funds over the next three years in support of the clinic's new internal medicine residency program.

"We are grateful for this generosity and commitment to rural health care," said Billings Clinic CEO Nicholas Wolter. "This level of generosity will improve access for patients in rural communities throughout Montana, and it will support the training of physicians who will deliver primary care in the rural setting."