Recruiting, educating, training and retaining students from Georgia and the southern states for the practice of medicine in the South is the current focus of Gwinnett County’s only medical school, Georgia Campus-Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA-PCOM). Located a mile east of Interstate 85 at Exit 109 on Old Peachtree Road in Suwanee, our focus is expanding. As a not-for-profit private institution, PCOM is fast becoming a public resource in Georgia.

As Georgia Campus-PCOM continues to grow, senior administrators will look toward adding other healthcare related professional programs to the curriculum.

“Like our physician program, we will recruit students from Georgia and from the South for these other healthcare related professional degree programs,” according to John Fleischmann, EdD, MBA, MPA, campus executive officer.

“In addition to the physician program and the biomedical sciences certificate and master degree programs, the College now offers a master’s degree in Physician Assistant studies in partnership with Brenau University in Gainesville. We plan to create additional partnerships to expand our PA program in the near future.”

The campus opened its doors in August 2005 with 86 first-year medical students, nine faculty and 15 support staff.  Enrollment today – in all programs – stands at 300 medical students and 67 biomedical science students with 21 faculty and 24 support staff. In addition, many physicians in Gwinnett County and throughout Georgia and the Southeast, mentor GA-PCOM medical students during their third and fourth years of study.

“Locating in Gwinnett County was a conscious decision on our part,” according to Fleischmann. “From the infrastructure to the public schools to the vision of the Chamber’s leadership to the potential of working with Gwinnett Health System, we felt this was the right place to be,” he said.

“The Chamber, in particular, has been an invaluable forum to meet business and industry leaders and government officials who have become partners with us in our service to Georgia,” Fleischmann said. “We, in turn, hope that this is and will continue to be a mutually beneficial relationship as we plan for the future to address healthcare needs in Georgia and in the South.”