Healthcare providers in Montana will receive $9 million in grants from Helmsley Trust to support healthcare in rural regions, reports the Billings Gazette.

The gift will be split in two part. The state for mobile training and simulation centers will receive $4.6 million to train health professionals in rural areas, and $4.3 million will go to Billings Clinic's Internal Medicine Residency program for rotations in rural areas where it will fund four-week rotations at Sheridan Memorial Hospital and Livingston HealthCare for the clinic's resident physicians.

"Today is about the future of healthcare in the state of Montana and the entire region," said Shelley Stingley, program director of the Leona M. And Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust's Rural Healthcare Program.

Rural doctors in the rotation will be taught by Ben Widener, MD, from Sheridan Memorial, where they will be able to meet new doctors and gain insight from their urban counterparts.

"It means we have the opportunity to teach and share our passion for internal medicine with a whole new generation of doctors," Widener said.

The grant also establishes the Helmsley Rural Healthcare Scholars, which funds seven residents over three years. The program will allow the doctors to research rural healthcare and give them a chance to submit their findings for peer-reviewed publication.

The $4.6 million grant for mobile training and simulation centers will help purchase three 18-wheeled trucks with high-tech laboratories and patient simulators.