Site Description:
The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and the University of Georgia partnered to create a four-year medical school campus in Athens to help alleviate a statewide shortage of physicians that threatens the health of Georgians.The AU/UGA Medical Partnership combines the significant instructional and research resources of UGA, the birthplace of public higher education, with the expertise one of the country’s first, and Georgia’s only public medical school, the Medical College of Georgia. In addition to increasing the number of physicians in Georgia, the partnership is expanding research collaborations between AU and UGA, creating new insights into the prevention and treatment of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Students have the opportunity to learn in small group class sizes, while having the benefit of being part of one of the largest medical schools in the United States. Georgia currently ranks 39th in the nation in the ratio of physicians to population. It also faces a number of health challenges, including a high infant mortality rate and high rates of obesity and heart disease. Through expanded medical education and research, the AU/UGA Medical Partnership is addressing these issues to improve the health and prosperity of our state.
At AU/UGA Medical Partnership Campus, problem-based learning is the primary method of education for good reason. Learning is the natural result when the primary objective centers around finding the solution to a problem.. This has been readily apparent throughout our internship. Our site supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Murrow, embraced this methodology by helping us target our learning to address the problems associated with the provision of clean drinking water.
Project Description
I, along with my classmate Lee Brackman, worked to:
- Characterize and sample water in the southeast region of the United States
- Identify and evaluate several water analysis methods with special interest on price of testing, validation of testing results, accuracy of results, and equipment needed for testing
- Compare various water treatment methods across a variety of factors
- Read and reflect on several landmark academic articles relating to business administration, ethics, health promotion, and the provision of public goods
- Conduct key informant interviews with expert individuals who live and breathe water treatment everyday
- Apply central tenets of risk communication and health promotion by developing a campaign which targets the behavior of cleaning water before drinking it
