The Savannah community has long-been supportive of medical education. Students have been doing 4- to 6-week clinical rotations at St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System since 2007 and a residential campus was established there, a year ahead of schedule, in 2011. In addition to growth in the sheer number of students, educational opportunities are also expanding.
For example, this year, the campus hosted its first ever Southeast Community Engagement and Research Conference, where students living and learning at that campus and across the state were able to conduct and present community-based research projects.
The campus incorporates MCG’s innovative 3+ curriculum, which allows students to individualize their medical education – completing the medical school curriculum in three years, with options to complete a dual degree, such as an MD/MBA, or delve more into their chosen specialty in their fourth year. A select group of students, MCG’s Peach State Scholars, instead opt to enter into a primary care residency program after they complete their third-year and then commit to serve in rural and underserved areas of the state, in exchange for a scholarship that covers the cost of their medical education.
Elizabeth Gray, MD, an internist, has led the Savannah location of the Southeast Campus, home to about 80 third- and fourth-year students who live and learn in the area, since 2020.
Georgia’s only public medical school has received funding approval to open a new four-year campus in Savannah, an expansion that will provide greater access to education and training for medical students and ease the state’s ongoing shortage of physicians.
