Primary Care Interest Groups

Family Medicine Interest Group

The Family Medicine Interest Group is an affiliate organization of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, which aids its members in the understanding of the multidimensional health care system, especially at the primary care level. The ECU Group emphasizes community service and participation in community projects such as health fairs. Students are active at the state and national level in family medicine.

The Family Medicine Interest Group fosters students in discovering family medicine on a local, state, and national level. At the local level, the goal is education and promotion of the mission of the ECU School of Medicine in providing North Carolina with quality family physicians. FMIG holds monthly meetings featuring speakers who focus on aspects of the specialty. Members also attend workshops for training in skills necessary for service projects such as suturing and blood pressure screening.

Internal Medicine Interest Group

The Internal Medicine Interest Group is a medical student-directed organization sponsored by the Department of Medicine. The group meets regularly each year from August to April to provide opportunities for students to learn more about the field of Internal Medicine, as practiced by primary care internists or subspecialists. The group’s student leaders organize the meetings around a variety of topics of special interest for students at all levels of training. Past guest speakers have included internists practicing in the community as well as nationally-recognized educators in internal medicine. One of the group’s past activities was organizing a Residency Recruitment Fair that brought in representatives from several internal medicine residency programs in the southeastern United States.

All medical students are encouraged to participate in meetings and other activities. Public announcements of upcoming group activities are made via flyers and the Student Affairs Activity Calendar.

Med-Peds Interest Group

The Med/Peds Interest Group is an informal organization that enables interested medical students to learn about primary care career opportunities in the combined field of Internal Medicine/Pediatrics. Students interested in med/peds residency often use this as an opportunity to network with like-minded students, med/peds residents and med/peds training physicians. The students frequently remain active in other primary care interest groups such as Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and/or Pediatrics as well. The agenda for this group has included not only increasing interest in med/peds training but even more specifically discussing career opportunities and specifics about various residency training programs.

Pediatric Interest Groups

The Pediatrics Interest Group was formed so that students interested in the field could meet informally with pediatricians from the community. The group meets each month at a physician’s home to listen to a speaker affiliated with Pediatric Medicine. Past topics include: the future of Pediatrics, child abuse detection and child advocacy, ADHD, anticipatory guidance, and child development. The organization also works on a variety of community projects that include hands-on interactions at the Greenville Community Shelter Pediatric Clinic as well as volunteer work on the hospital pediatric units.