Why Quillen?

Quillen is unique in many ways. Every school can accurately make that same claim. Some of the assets that make Quillen most attractive to some are the small class size, the collegiality, camaraderie and team work between students faculty and staff, the location in the beautiful foothills of the Smokies, the smaller town environment, the individual attention available from faculty and staff, the smaller but modern and well equipped hospitals, the excellence of the training and the Quillen experience or the safety and serenity of the environment. The PRIDE we take in our students and graduates. Any or all of these things might make Quillen the best school for you or maybe not.
 
 We invite and encourage all prospective students to visit our campus, talk with our students and graduates, look around the Tri-Cities and just see how the school feels to you. Ask lots of questions. Find out the answers to the questions that are important to you and don't let anybody tell you what is important. Four years after matriculation at any school, most all students are awarded two new initials after their name (M.D.) and a new first name that goes with them for the rest of their life (Doctor). All schools teach Anatomy, Biochemistry, Surgery and Pediatrics most use many of the same text books. Thus it seems to follow that you will cover much of the same information wherever you choose. The differences come not in what you get, but in how you get it, who you get it from and who you get it with. You need to be comfortable in your medical education environment---it makes a huge difference. Find out for yourself!

Our History

East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine is the only medical school in the Tennessee Board of Regents System and, with the College of Nursing, College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, Gatton College of Pharmacy, and College of Public Health, serves as the system’s health sciences center. In just three decades, the College has developed into one of the nation’s leading schools for rural medicine and primary care training, an honor consistently recognized by U.S. News & World Report.

Founded in 1974 on a mission to train primary care physicians and to increase the number of doctors in rural communities, the Quillen College of Medicine, with more than 1,500 graduates, has remained true to its original mission. Thirty-five years later, Fitzhugh Mullan published his innovative “social mission” research in the Annals of Internal Medicine, demonstrating that Quillen is ranked first in the nation for primary care graduates.