Kemp To Speak At Ribbon Cutting For South Georgia's First 4-Year Medical School

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PCOM South Georgia, the first four-year medical school in Southwest Georgia, will hold its ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. Aug. 6, 2019.

South Georgia's Colquitt County has its first four-year medical school in Moultrie and Gov. Brian Kemp will speak during the Aug. 6 ribbon cutting.

The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is designed to help meet physician workforce needs in rural Georgia, President Jay Feldstein said in a release.Joanne Jones with PCOM says the four-year medical school opening in South Georgia will help address a physician shortage in rural Georgia. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports.

Joanne Jones, who works with the college's business office, said the goal is to enroll students from the South Georgia region, “Have them go to medical school here, train in their residency programs in this region so that they will stay and practice after all of their training is completed.”

Classes begin Aug. 12 with 55 students who will study to become Doctors of Osteopathic medicine. Graduates are fully licensed physicians who differ from medical doctors (or MDs) in their approach to care and training, which focuses on the "whole person."

The majority of DOs are family-oriented primary care physicians, according to the school's website. Many DOs practice in small towns and rural areas, where they often care for entire families and communities.

The Moultrie PCOM campus will be the second in Georgia. Since it's beginning in 2005, PCOM Georgia in Suwanee has graduated 1,047 osteopathic physicians in addition to many other graduates in Doctor of Pharmacy, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences and Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies programs.

The 31-acre campus includes a 75,000-square-foot facility and will be led by 30 faculty and staff members.