Academic Partnerships

Blue Ridge AHEC works closely with all Georgia medical schools and many allied health schools/colleges to place students in communities for exceptional “real world” clinical training experiences. Blue Ridge AHEC partners with the following academic programs to coordinate clinical preceptorships, facilitate hospital credentialing, and provide AHEC housing and travel support for students completing rotations in northwest Georgia.

Augusta University, chartered in 1828 as a single academy to provide instruction in “several branches of the healing art,” is a major academic health center and a health sciences research university located in Augusta, Georgia.

The institution, consisting of the schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine, and Nursing and the Hospital and Clinics, serves a highly focused and specialized student body. As an academic health center and research university, the Medical College of Georgia is committed to:

Excellence in academic achievement, which will bring to it national and international recognition
Development of a fully-integrated and cost efficient health care system that provides leading edge clinical innovation and technology
A shared responsibility for meeting the health care needs of a widely dispersed and highly diverse population
Broadly-based research, scholarship, and creative endeavors consistent with the highest standards of academic excellence

Augusta University is committed to being one of the nation’s premier academic health centers for outstanding education, committed public service, and leading-edge research and scholarship. As it pursues this goal, the institution is determined to embody the concept of interactive, ongoing partnerships embracing faculty, students, patients, staff, and the public across the state and nation in order to effectively serve those who seek a career, those who seek knowledge, and those who seek care. Blue Ridge AHEC has worked with Augusta University since 1997.

Blue Ridge AHEC works with these programs:

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
Medical Doctor
Nurse Practitioner
Physical Therapy
Physician Assistant

For more information on Augusta University’s Health Sciences programs, click here: Augusta University

Located just 15 minutes from downtown Atlanta in the tree-lined suburban neighborhood of Druid Hills, Emory University is positioned along the Clifton Corridor, which also includes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society.

Emory University is home to nine major academic divisions, numerous centers for advanced study, and a host of prestigious affiliated institutions. In addition to Emory College, the University encompasses a graduate school of arts and sciences; professional schools of medicine, theology, law, nursing, public health, and business; and Oxford College, a two-year undergraduate division on the original campus of Emory in Oxford, Ga.

The University has 11,300 students and 2,500 faculty members who represent all regions of the United States and more than 100 foreign nations. Blue Ridge AHEC has worked with Emory since 1997.

Blue Ridge AHEC currently collaborates with these programs at Emory University:

Certified Nurse Midwife
Medical Doctor
Nurse Practitioner
Physical Therapy
Physician Assistant
Physician Assistant Anesthetist

For more information on the Medical and Health Professions programs at Emory University’s Health Sciences programs, click here: Emory University School of Medicine

To learn more about Nursing programs at Emory, click here: Emory University School of Nursing

The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine has a 110 year tradition of training osteopathic physicians and other health care practitioners. Seeing a growing need for primary care physicians and other clinicians in the South, a state-of-the-art branch campus was opened in 2005 in Suwannee Georgia.

Today GA PCOM, the only branch campus of the college boasts a 150,000 square foot facility that houses a comprehensive award winning library, modern labs and classrooms.

Students considering enrollment at GA PCOM can choose from several academic programs including: Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Doctor of Pharmacy, Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences, and Master of Science in Organizational Development and Leadership. In addition, pre-Physician Assistant studies are offered through Brenau University in Gainesville, GA and Thomas University in Thomasville, GA. These courses are linked to a Masters Degree in Physician Assistant Studies at the main campus in Philadelphia.

Blue Ridge AHEC has worked with GA PCOM since it opened in 2005.

Blue Ridge AHEC works with these programs:

Doctor of Osteopathy
Doctor of Pharmacy
Physician Assistant

For more information on the programs at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Georgia Campus, click here: PCOM – Georgia Campus

Mercer University has several campuses in Georgia. The School of Medicine has campuses in Macon (the original), Savannah and Columbus. Mercer also has an Atlanta campus with several allied health programs. Opened in 1982, the School of Medicine emphasizes training for practice in primary care and other needed medical specialties, with a focus on rural and underserved areas of Georgia. The School ranks among the nation’s top schools in producing primary care and family practice physicians. In addition to the doctor of medicine, the School of Medicine also offers masters degrees in public health, family therapy, and family services.

The mission of the Mercer University School of Medicine is to educate physicians to meet the health care needs of rural and other areas of Georgia. The principal need is for physician specialists in the primary care areas of family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. Also, general surgery, psychiatry, and emergency medicine are recognized as career choices consistent with the mission. Other specialty practice areas may be added if warranted by the medical needs of Georgia. Mercer medical students learn to practice medicine in a variety of health care facilities through out the state.

The second major objective is to instill in Mercer physicians a commitment to lifelong learning. Mercer’s small group educational approach has been found to enhance the skills and attitudes necessary to self-directed and lifelong learning.

Blue Ridge AHEC also works with these programs:

Physician Assistant
Pharmacy
Physical Therapy

For more information on Mercer University’s Health Sciences programs, click here: Mercer Health Sciences Center

The Morehouse School of Medicine, located in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1975 with the mission of recruiting, educating, and graduating more students from minority and socio economically disadvantaged backgrounds for service as primary care physicians in our nation’s medically underserved communities. This mission is as compelling now as it was in 1975.

Complementary missions of the Morehouse School of Medicine are:

to train more minorities for academic medicine, for the medical specialties, for research, for administration, and for health policy positions
to expand basic biomedical research and clinical research, with particular attention to those problems that disproportionately affect minorities and the poor; and
to expand the size of the minority applicant pool for medicine, other health professions, and the biomedical sciences.

Morehouse University School of Medicine seeks to help the student prepare for and contribute to resolving the problems of medicine and health care through a challenging and stimulating educational program in scientific medicine. MSM has residency programs in Family Medicine, Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, General Surgery, and Obstetrics and Gynecology. MSM graduates live our mission with eighty-four percent practicing in underserved communities.

Blue Ridge AHEC partners these programs at Morehouse School of Medicine:

Medical Doctor
Physician Assistant

To learn more about the programs at Morehouse School of Medicine, click here: Morehouse School of Medicine