Mission and background

The GMEC mission is to improve access to high quality primary care for citizens of Southwest Virginia by forming educational partnerships between communities, local physicians, and primary care residency programs in Virginia, Tennessee North Carolina, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

GMEC creates and supports medical residency preceptor sites in rural and underserved communities in Southwest Virginia. The GMEC service area includes the Virginia counties and cities of Bland, Bristol, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Galax, Grayson, Lee, Norton, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe.

The University of Virginia's College at Wise contracts with a non-profit corporation called the "Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium, Inc." to facilitate on-the-job training for graduate medical students in the practices of primary care doctors who work in rural communities. We call the non-profit corporation and the program it sponsors "GMEC."

The Commonwealth of Virginia appropriates funds to operate GMEC. The entire state appropriation passes through the Virginia Department of Health to our non-profit corporation. In turn, the non-profit passes along 100% of the funds to UVA's College at Wise to operate the GMEC program. Funds were appropriated for GMEC effective July 1, 1998.