Program Overview

Introduction to the Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) Programme

The Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) programme is a compressed, tailor-made curriculum designed to equip and enthuse its graduates to practice generalist and rural medicine in Scotland, within the ethos of socially accountable medicine.

Programme Overview

The ScotGEM programme aims to address the shortage of primary-care physicians, especially in remote and rural areas, by providing a unique curriculum that focuses on distributed training, undergraduate medical education, and social accountability.

Key Innovations of the Curriculum

• The Generalist Clinical Mentor (GCM) role
• The year-long primary care Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC)
• The Agents of Change curriculum

Programme Details

The programme is designed to encourage generalist, rural careers within Scotland, and there is growing evidence of the benefits ScotGEM faculty and students bring to the clinical workforce in the distributed settings.

Research Areas

• Distributed training
• Undergraduate medical education
• Rural and remote areas
• Scotland
• Family medicine and general practice
• Social accountability

Publication Details

The programme details have been published in the Frontiers in Medicine journal, Volume 12, with a DOI of 10.3389/fmed.2025.

Article Details

• Title: Development and innovation in a new distributed medical programme: Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM)
• Authors: Fiona Graham, Jon Dowell, Angela Flynn, Shalini Gupta, Andrew David MacFarlane, Andrew O'Malley, Robert Scully, Lloyd Samuel John Thompson, and Kirsty Alexander
• Publication Date: 14 July 2025
• Language: English
• Publisher: Frontiers Media

Keywords

• Distributed training
• Undergraduate medical education
• Rural and remote areas
• Scotland
• Family medicine and general practice
• Social accountability

Conclusion

The Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) programme is a unique and innovative programme that aims to address the shortage of primary-care physicians in remote and rural areas of Scotland. With its focus on distributed training, undergraduate medical education, and social accountability, the programme is well-suited to produce graduates who are equipped to practice generalist and rural medicine in Scotland.