The South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (South Carolina AHEC) began in 1972 as one of the 11 originally funded projects of the federal AHEC program. We function as a cooperative effort of the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, South Carolina community teaching hospitals, and regional AHEC Centers. We have successfully grown into a system that works closely with the state’s institutions of higher education and other partners to educate, recruit, and retain health care providers.

The South Carolina AHEC provides for a continuum of education extending from primary and secondary school, to undergraduate and professional school, then to graduate medical education, and finally to continuing education for practicing health professionals. Specifically, we maintain strong programs designed to: increase the number of young people who aspire to become health care professionals, emphasizing underrepresented ethnic minority groups and the economically disadvantaged; facilitate clinical rotations for health professions students in rural and underserved areas; increase the physician workforce by sponsoring graduate medical education residency training programs; enhance clinical competence by providing educational programs for health care providers at or near their workplace; and increase the healthcare workforce by maintaining programs to recruit and retain primary care providers.