When Dr. William Wright joined the School of Medicine Greenville in July of 2011, as the new medical school’s first academic faculty member, the 90,000-square-foot Health Sciences Education building was a shell of a building. 

Constructed several years earlier, “it was open and framed by concrete floors and walls,” recalls Wright. “There was no simulation center, no learning studio, no lecture hall yet.”

It would be another 12 months before the charter class of students would arrive, and there was much to do. Construction crews would complete the education building over the next few months. During this time, additional faculty also joined the School of Medicine Greenville. 

“It was difficult because there was this sense of urgency to be prepared when the students arrived,” says Wright, an associate professor who specializes in cardiovascular physiology. 

Faculty and academic leaders were not just creating a new curriculum, but a one-of-a-kind curriculum — one that prioritized integrated academic and clinical learning, involvement in the community and hands-on learning — for a new kind of medical school that seeks to inspire the next generation of doctors. The goal was to become a medical school unlike any other, where the education would be driven by a hands-on, holistic, patient-centered focus.

“We wanted to be on the cutting edge,” says Dr. April Buchanan, who helped shape the school’s curriculum during this time.

“The focus was on how to best prepare medical students for residency and beyond to careers as physician leaders, patient advocates, and contributors to their communities, as opposed to following traditional curricular methods,” says Buchanan, Associate Dean for Medical Education at the School of Medicine Greenville and a practicing pediatric hospitalist at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital.

At its inception, a new motto was created for the School of Medicine Greenville: a “New School of Thought” for a new kind of medical school. 

The ambitious mission at the new UofSC School of Medicine Greenville (SOMG) required collaboration at multiple levels and an all-hand’s-on-deck approach. Faculty and founding senior administrators worked closely. Furthermore, founding academic biomedical sciences faculty, such as Wright, also partnered with clinical faculty at the Greenville Health System to create a model of interdisciplinary learning that was innovative and inclusive. 

The School of Medicine Greenville was forged by a landmark partnership between the University of South Carolina and the Greenville Health System. 

In the spring of 2009, the two entities authorized a study to examine the creation of a four-year medical program in Greenville, concluding that a new medical school was consistent with the mission statements and goals of the respective institutions. 

While the School opened its door to its charter class of 48 students in July, 2012, the formidable work to start a new medical school started well before that. 

Back in 1965, Anthony J. J. Rourke, a prominent medical consultant from New Rochelle, New York wrote a feasibility study that established the need for an accredited medical school in the Greenville area and highlighted support from leaders in the community. The study recommended the construction of such a school by 1969 and a first class of medical students by 1971 or 1972. Propelled by a need to address a shortage of physicians and a desire to strengthen medical education and the quality of healthcare in the region, many supporters and innovators were involved in shaping the new medical school over the next few decades. 

In the late 2000s, synergy between the Greenville Health System (GHS) and the University of South Carolina led to the formation of a new medical school that could focus on preparing students to adapt to continual change in healthcare, says Dr. Jerry Youkey, the school’s founding dean. The partnership helped create a state-of-the-art feeder program for new physicians for the health care system, and it granted students immediate access to help from dedicated clinicians as students trained in their medical specialty. The Greenville Health System also established a 30,000-square-foot regional health simulation learning and research center in the education building. 

(The partnership with SOMG is now carried on by Prism Health, the state’s largest private not-for-profit healthcare organization. In 2017, Greenville Health System transitioned into Prisma Health, continuing the partnership with the School of Medicine Greenville and building on the synergy between the two organizations.)    

Innovation was an important building block at the School of Medicine Greenville, one of several student-focused and health-care partnered medical schools to open at the beginning of the 21st century in the U.S.

“We brought clinicians into the classroom to teach,” says Buchanan. “We thought about how to enhance active learning and find more ways to engage students.”

A unique program is the emergency medical technician (EMT) training that every medical student undergoes, implemented on day one at SOMG. One of the first in the country to do so, the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville requires first-year medical students to complete an emergency medical technician training course to certification. Students spend 12 hours each month serving the community as EMTs, who work in an environment requiring skills in communication, focused patient assessment, documentation and patient safety.

One other “new school of thought” is the Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum, a first-of-its-kind program to highlight prevention and health wellness. SOMG is the first and only school of medicine to do this across the four years of medical education. A Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum focuses on preparing future physicians to help prevent and treat lifestyle-related diseases, through a focus on lifestyle factors such as nutrition and physical activity.

The School of Medicine Greenville was specifically created to address a shortage of physicians in South Carolina, including a shortage of 815 primary care physicians by 2030. 

The School was formed to meet this ongoing shortage, while providing exceptional training for new physicians in transforming healthcare delivery. 

“Our state’s physician shortage not only increases the workload and stress of practicing physicians but creates barriers to healthcare access, which can lower the overall quality of patient care, while increasing its cost,” says Dr. Shanna Williams, a Clinical Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and a founding faculty member. “Here at the School of Medicine Greenville, we’re dedicated to facing this challenge head on by training our students to think differently. We take a holistic and interactive approach to their education. From their first day in medical school to their last, we link classroom learning to real-world clinical settings, expose students to their patients’ lives in the community and how these factors influence medical choices, and the impact of diet and lifestyle behaviors on disease. 

“For decades Greenville, S.C. had wanted a 4- year medical school,” says Dean Marjorie Jenkins, MD MEdHP FACP, who in 2019 joined the SOMG as Dr. Youkey’s successor. Dr. Jenkins joined U of SC School of Medicine Greenville from the US Food and Drug Administration and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, where she was a professor and the founder of the Laura Bush Institute for Women’s Health, a biomedical research and health education institute. 

“This medical school happened because the Greenville Health System and the community came together,” says Jenkins. “There was so much perseverance on the part of people who had the vision that began decades earlier to grow a medical school.

“It is difficult to name one thing I am most proud of, but at the top of my list is that SOMG lives its mission everyday,” Jenkins says. 

While the 1965 feasibility study recommended a two-year medical school, the effort was later expanded to a four-year medical degree. The task of opening a third medical school in the state of South Carolina was taken on in earnest by Jenkins' predecessor, Dean Emeritus Youkey, senior administrators, founding faculty and community leaders who supported the concept. 

Founding faculty Dr. Wright recalls working closely with administrators, including Dean Emeritus Youkey, Dr. Lynn Crespo, Associate Dean for Education, Dr. Bob Best, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and Dr. Spence Taylor, a veteran academic leader in medical education in the state; Wright also partnered with clinical faculty at the Greenville Health System to develop content and create a unique model of learning.  

But they were not starting from scratch.

Beginning in 1983, every year a small cohort of fourth-year medical students from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia would come to the Greenville Health System to complete select clinical rotations there. That program would form the foundation for a medical-education expansion in Greenville. “Within the clinical environment [at Greenville Health System], they were used to the students being there, assessing students, and other aspects from an education perspective,” says Wright. 

As the seed grew for a third medical school in the state, both the Greenville Health System and the state’s largest public university backed the concept. For more than two decades, UofSC had partnered with the Greenville Health System in providing comprehensive medical education to medical students from the state’s School of Medicine Columbia. A new medical school was a big step in the right direction and the most innovative way to address the health needs of the community. Two existing medical schools were not providing enough graduates to go into residencies in order to serve the population of the state. 

 “So someone had to do something about that. The University of South Carolina said, ‘let's try to do that.’” Initial plans focused on a Greenville satellite of the medical school in Columbia, S.C., but academic leaders shifted towards a new model of medical education in a separate, independently-accredited medical school. “At the time, Greenville Health System came to us and said, ‘Hey, we love academic medicine, we'd like to be part of the initiation and development of a brand-new medical school,’” says Pastides. 

In 2010, several milestones occurred that would help usher in the new medical school that would soon open its door to medical students. In July 2010, the Greenville Health System established the Medical Experience (MedEx) Academy — a one of a kind medical education program focused on high school and college students. Led by Dr. Brenda Thames, Greenville Health System’s vice president for academic development, the academy aimed to increase access for high school and college students who want to pursue higher education and careers in healthcare. It was developed to help those students explore and experience various healthcare careers. The program provided experiential healthcare learning opportunities each summer as well as mentorship and preparation for students with the goal of attending medical school and other health careers.

Furthermore, the program solidified the need for healthcare education in the Greenville area and provided a future career “pathway” for rising college seniors who wanted to go on to study advanced medical education at medical school, including a significant portion who matriculate at the School of Medicine Greenville. The academy has helped to increase the number of medical students entering the field from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine. The MedEx Academy — now led by Prisma Health — continues to provide about 200 students with experiential healthcare learning opportunities each summer.

In 2010, another significant step forward in the formation of a new medical school took place when administrators began the process of accrediting the new medical school. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) granted preliminary accreditation status in October 2011, which qualified the School of Medicine Greenville to begin receiving applications through the American Medical College Application Service. At this time, accreditors were impressed by the energy at the new medical school and especially the partnership with the health system, recalls Buchanan. 

“During the first site visit, they told us we were doing great things here,” says Buchanan. “I think this positive feedback so early in the process motivated the team even more to continue to enhance our curriculum, build on community, academic, and clinical partnerships, and create a truly exceptional medical school.” 

In total, SOMG participated in three initial LCME site visits within a four-year span in the process to earn full accreditation status and ensure standards are adhered to. In the fall of 2015, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) granted the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville full accreditation of the medical education program. In 2021, the School earned accreditation for the next eight-year term, through 2028-29.

Since its inception in 2012, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville has strived to educate students who are advocates for transforming health care delivery, embrace lifelong learning and are dedicated to improving patient health and the health of communities.

The School was named an Apple Distinguished School in 2020, with technology propelling learning every day at School of Medicine Greenville.

In many aspects, the School continues to stand out as a forward-thinking institution, with a state-of-the-art integrated curriculum. Medical students are trained in topics for today’s complex health care world, including preventative health, population health, the business of medicine, and high-value care which means the right treatment for the right reason for our patients. “All of this culminates in a generation of physicians trained within the School of Medicine Greenville and Prisma Health who are ready to hit the ground running and who understand how they can show up as leaders,” says Jenkins. “Whether they have an administrative title or not, they are a leader wherever they are taking care of patients.”

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville is deeply committed to fostering a culture of fairness, equity and inclusion among its diverse students, faculty, staff and other key stakeholders. In recent years, the School welcomed its most diverse student population, and the student body is on track to mirror the varied demographics of South Carolina with 23% of students coming from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine.

To reduce disparities in medical education and prepare more students for successful matriculation to medical school, the School of Medicine Greenville has created the PreMed Partners Pathway (P3) program designed to identify, educate, and prepare underrepresented undergraduate students to successfully enter the School of Medicine Greenville. Also of importance is the support of foundations and donors such as BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation, and the Levi S. Kirkland, Sr., MD Society. The two organizations’ contributions, in 2015 and 2021, will help achieve high-quality medical education and training through a grant that will provide scholarships to underrepresented students in medicine.

Looking ahead, the SOMG will look to expand its research focus on health issues and community-health models and solutions and continue to help grow the number of physicians in the Palmetto State. A curriculum refresh is underway to ensure that the school continues to strive for innovation. “We want to stay on that cutting edge,” Buchanan says.