Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center (SOWEGA-AHEC)
Release: 07/15/08
Albany, Georgia

Pathway To Medical School Awarded National Award for Excellence

The Pathway to Medical School Program was recently awarded the National AHEC
Organization Center Award for Excellence in for Health Careers Student
Recruitment at the 2008 National Area Health Education Center Organization
Conference in Denver, Colo.
 
Pathway to Medical School is a uniquely designed collaborative program
developed by the Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency of Phoebe
Putney Memorial Hospital, Albany Area Primary Health Care, The University of
Georgia College of Pharmacy and Southwest Georgia Area Health Education
Center (SOWEGA-AHEC).
 
The Pathway program met the Awards Committee's "highest standards of
excellence," Anne Maynard and Sandy Ryman, NAO Awards Committee co-chairs,
told Pathway Preceptor Coordinator Julie Roth in a recent e-mail notifying
her of the award. "Your program met those standards and stands as an
exemplar for other AHEC Center programs. It is indeed projects of this level
of excellence for which national recognition was intended."
 
The Pathway program is designed to increase participants' chances of being
accepted into medical school in Georgia, reinforce an interest in primary
care medicine, provide early exposure to Family Medicine, to provide
exposure to community medicine, and to encourage students to return to
Southwest Georgia after completing their medical education.
 
The 2008 Pathway To Med School program kicked off July 7 with a new class of
nine undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing medicine.
 
The four-week, 160-hour program is in place for Georgia undergraduate
students to develop their interest in family medicine and primary care prior
to acceptance into medical school and to foster that interest throughout
their medical school education and career. The Pathway Program is the only
one of its kind in the state of Georgia.
 
Highlights of the program include:
· 60 hours of community-based clinical research;
· Opportunity for students to shadow primary care physicians in a family
medicine based residency center; and
· Lunch ?n' learn seminars to help students complete and enhance the
competitiveness of their medical school applications.
 
 
For more information on the Pathway to Medical School Program, please
contact Valerie Benton at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, 229-312-7106.