The Department of Community Medicine, housed within the School of Medicine at the Mercer University School of Medicine, serves the School of Medicine as the academic home of the population health sciences. In addition to its curricular responsibilities in undergraduate medical education, the Department offers a Master of Public Health degree program. When the medical school was founded in 1982, the Community Science Program was part of the Department of Family and Community Medicine; in 2002, full department status was granted to the Department of Community Medicine. The faculty in the Department come from diverse personal and educational backgrounds and are supported by 250 community preceptors located throughout the state of Georgia. In addition, the Mercer University School of Medicine MPH Program serves the state by offering a unique educational experience designed to train tomorrow’s public health professional.

Our department provides educational opportunities, cutting-edge research, and service learning to those wishing to study medicine and public health, as well as community members throughout Georgia. Our successes stem from our provision of guidance for individuals pursuing careers in the patient-care profession and public health through exposure to the concepts of population health, including evidence-based medicine, epidemiology & biostatistics, health promotion and disease prevention, and behavioral and social research.