The Global & Rural Health Program brings together MCG's educational, clinical, scholarly, and partnership activities related to rural, underserved, and global health.
The Global & Rural Health Pathway is a proposed application-based pathway within the MCG 3+ curriculum that is designed to create a coordinated structure across MCG's campuses so that learners can move from foundational education to supervised experience, scholarship, mentorship, and leadership through a clear and consistent process.
Rather than treating individual trips, electives, or community activities as isolated experiences, the Program seeks to connect them through shared educational standards, ethical principles, long-term partnerships, and meaningful evaluation.
Communities in rural Georgia and communities around the world differ substantially in history, culture, health systems, disease patterns, infrastructure, and resources.
At the same time, physicians practicing in these environments often face similar professional challenges: limited access to specialty care, transportation barriers, workforce shortages, fragmented systems, constrained resources, differences in health literacy and communication, and difficulty ensuring continuity of care.
Studying these settings together allows learners to develop broadly useful skills while learning to recognize and respect the important differences between communities.
Year 1: Explore and Apply
Students are introduced to the Pathway during the first year of medical school and may apply during the spring of M1.
Students selected for the Pathway begin focused Global & Rural Health education while continuing the core MCG curriculum.
Foundational Education
Pathway students participate in Public Health and Global Health Career Path experiences and complete the introductory Global & Rural Health elective.
Clerkship: Learn in Rural Communities
During the clerkship phase, students complete a substantial portion of their clinical education in rural settings, including FQHCs, community health centers, regional campuses, and other approved rural practices.
Advanced Clerkship and Enrichment
Students complete selected advanced experiences relevant to rural and global practice. Rural ambulatory and emergency medicine experiences are incorporated into this portion of the curriculum.
Scholarship
Students complete scholarly work focused on public health, community health, rural health, or global health. Projects may include research, quality improvement, implementation work, needs assessment, education, health systems, or other approved scholarly activities.
Global Experience
Students participate in at least one supervised international experience. Whenever possible, experiences will occur through established partner sites to improve continuity, educational quality, supervision, collaboration, and student safety.
Elective coursework supports diverse clinical interests, featuring options in Rural Family Medicine, Rural Emergency Medicine, Telemedicine, Infectious Diseases, Palliative Care, Rural Women's Health, Clinical Ultrasound, and Pediatric Care.
Proposed electives include experiences in areas such as:
Applications are expected to open during the spring of the first year of medical school following final approval of the Pathway. Additional information regarding eligibility, application dates, selection criteria, cohort size, and advising will be posted when available.
Information about the MCG curriculum, Pathway Programs, policies, clerkships, enrichment, and academic requirements.
University resources for international education and travel.
Augusta University's system for applicable international travel registration and documentation.
Join a longitudinal medical school pathway designed to prepare you for impactful clinical care, scholarship, and leadership across rural Georgia and global communities.