The Internal Medicine Residency Program, a joint effort of the Georgia Regents University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership and St. Mary’s Health Care System, received accreditation on Jan. 28 in the final step towards becoming Athens’ first medical residency program.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) approved 10 Internal Medicine residents to begin their training at St. Mary’s in July 2015, with plans for the program to grow to 30 residents by 2017. A medical residency is the final phase of a physician’s formal education. Residency training takes place in teaching hospitals, which create programs that allow residents to practice medicine under the supervision and instruction of fully licensed physicians.
