Mercy Health Youngstown's Graduate Medical Assistant (GME) program will welcome 50 incoming residents across 10 residency programs and two fellowship programs on Saturday, July 1.

The new class includes residents in the specialties of internal medicine, family medicine, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, general dentistry, emergency medicine, otolaryngology, transitional year and pharmacy.

Additionally, Mercy is introducing a new rural pathway to its GME program as part of the ministry's commitment to growing rural health care access.

This pathway will give family medicine residents interested in rural health care the opportunity to train in a rural setting and address the unique health disparities facing patients in these communities.

It will operate out of Mercy Health Columbiana Primary Care under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Macabobby and Dr. Alex Heintzelman.

The residents were paired with various Mercy Health Youngstown programs in March on Match Day, which is when graduating medical students get placed into residency and fellowship programs.

The new rural pathway is the latest example of Mercy's approach to growing its GME program and training opportunities. Mercy developed this pathway to train family medicine residents under the leadership of experienced rural family medicine physicians.