School of Medicine, GPB to Host Screening of Award-Winning Documentary Film The Providers

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The Providers

MACON – Georgia Public Broadcasting and Mercer University School of Medicine will co-host a free screening of the award-winning documentary film The Providers on March 26 from 2-4 p.m. in the Medical School Auditorium. A panel discussion will follow the screening.

Set against the backdrop of the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, The Providers follows three “country doctors” in New Mexico at clinics offering care to all, regardless of ability to pay.

As their personal struggles at times reflect those of their patients, these providers work to reach rural Americans who would otherwise be left without health care.

The film, which was released last April, has won several awards on the film festival circuit, including the Humanitarian Award at the International Documentary Film Festival, the Spirit of Activism Award at the San Francisco Documentary Festival and the Hernandez/Bayliss Prize for Triumph of the Human Spirit at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival.

After the screening, faculty from the School of Medicine and other local healthcare providers will participate in the panel discussion about health care in rural Georgia.

The event is open to the public, with parking available in the lot adjacent to the School of Medicine.

About Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)

Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened a full four-year campus in Savannah in 2008 at Memorial University Medical Center. In 2012, the School began offering clinical education for third- and fourth-year medical students in Columbus. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School’s primary teaching hospitals: Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon; Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah; and The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The School also offers master’s degrees in family therapy, preclinical sciences and biomedical sciences.