History

In 1991, the Commission on Health Care for All Virginians toured Southwest Virginia to assess the status of primary care in the region. Local officials and health care providers described primary care needs, barriers to access, and resource deficiencies plaguing the region. Based on this series of meetings, the Commission asked for a study to explore the possibility of establishing a family practice residency program in the Southwest. Between 1991 and 1997, a number of studies were completed and substantial efforts were made to promote the development of a Southwest Virginia residency program. After 1994, the Southwest Virginia Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and the Virginia Center for the Advancement of Generalist Medicine took the lead in exploring the matter. However, no residency program materialized and health care problems continued unabated in the Virginia mountains.

In an effort to address the shortage of primary care physicians in Southwest Virginia without creating a new residency program, the Virginia General Assembly appropriated funds in 1998 to establish the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium (GMEC).

Board members from the Southwest Virginia AHEC, a representative from the Virginia Department of Health, and representatives from medical schools at the University of Virginia and East Tennessee State University formed a steering committee to organize the new GMEC program. This group applied to incorporate as a Virginia nonprofit organization on August 27, 1998. On September 22, 1998, the State Corporation Commission issued a certificate of incorporation for the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium, Inc.

The GMEC board of directors solicited bids from educational institutions in Southwest Virginia to operate the program. By October 1998, the GMEC board had decided to contract with the University of Virginia's College at Wise. Board members formed a search committee to select an Executive Director and recommended Tony Lawson for the position in November 1998. Lawson is a native of Southwest Virginia and an alumnus of UVA's College at Wise. He directed a network of community health centers in four mountain counties for 10 years. The GMEC office opened on January 4, 1999.

Current Board members represent local physicians, public health, community health centers, UVA-Wise and these medical schools: East Tennessee State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Virginia Commonwealth University - Medical College of Virginia