Mercer launches accelerated path to medical school for undergraduates

Mercer says the program is designed to train more doctors who will remain in Georgia and serve rural and underserved communities.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Mercer University has launched a new program that allows students to complete their undergraduate degree in just three years and enter medical school a year earlier.  

The program gives students a faster path to becoming doctors and serving areas that need them most.    

“We look for work ethics and people who care about our mission as well,” Mercer School of Medicine Dean Jean Sumner said. “Mercer is here to serve Georgia, and our mission surrounds underserved populations in rural Georgia.”

Sumner says the school’s goal is training doctors who will stay in the state and provide care to their local communities.  

“We are very serious about our mission of staying in Georgia and serving rural areas,” Sumner said. “It will help Georgia because Mercer leads the state in the percentage of our graduates who stay in our state or return to our state. We feel our mission is really a sacred trust, that we made a commitment to the state to help improve physician workforce in rural Georgia, and we take that commitment very seriously.”

Sumner believes the program will help address the shortage of medical care in rural Georgia communities.  

“Of the 159 counties, 120 are considered rural by the state definition,” Sumner said. “So the state definitions less than 50,000 per county, and most of them are underserved. There are about 62 without a pediatrician. So, we select students who care about our mission.”

She believes Mercer medical students will help shape the future of healthcare in Georgia.  

“Healthcare is needed for every community, and healthcare improves student performance in school,” she said. “It brings in economic development, it helps children be able to participate in more activities. Prevention is the future of healthcare; we can prevent so many things, but they need to be found early in the course.”

Sumner says Mercer’s more than 200 medical students give her plenty of reason to be excited about the future of medicine here in Georgia.