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?School of MedicineDepartment of Developmental BiologyDepartment of Anatomy and Morphological NeuroscienceDepartment of Environmental PhysiologyDepartment of Neural and Muscular PhysiologyDepartment of Medical BiochemistryDepartment of Biochemistry,Division of Molecular MedicineDepartment of Life ScienceBiology/Physics/ChemistryDepartment of PharmacologyDepartment of Pathology, Functional Pathology SectionDepartment of Pathology, Organ Pathology SectionDepartment of MicrobiologyDepartment of ImmunologyDepartment of Legal MedicineDepartment of Public HealthDepartment of Environmental Preventive MedicineDepartment of Medical InformaticsDepartment of Medical English EducationDepartment of Internal Medicine ⅠDepartment of Internal Medicine ⅡDepartment of Internal Medicine ⅢDepartment of Internal Medicine ⅣDepartment of Internal MedicineDivision of Medical Oncology & Respiratory MedicineDepartment of DermatologyDepartment of PediatricsDepartment of Digestive and General SurgeryDepartment of Cardiovascular and Chest SurgeryDepartment of Orthopaedic SurgeryDepartment of NeurosurgeryDepartment of UrologyDepartment of PsychiatryDepartment of Obstetrics and GynecologyDepartment of OtorhinolaryngologyDepartment of OphthalmologyDepartment of RadiologyDepartment of Radiation OncologyDepartment of AnesthesiologyDepartment of Palliative CareDepartment of Oral and Maxillofacial SurgeryDepartment of Laboratory MedicineDepartment of Emergency and Critical Care MedicineDepartment of Acute Care SurgeryDepartment of Medical Education and ResearchDepartment of Community Medicine ManagementDepartment of General MedicineDepartment of Community Based Health Policy?School of NursingDepartment of Fundamental NursingDepartment of Clinical NursingDepartment of Community Health and Gerontological Nursing16Rural Medical EducationShimane University Faculty of Medicine offers a unique medical education program to medical students and residents who desire to serve as physicians in rural settings. This program, which is conducted through close cooperation between our university and a variety of hospitals and clinics in Shimane Prefecture, is in response to the growing health care needs evident in rural areas of Shimane and the rest of the nation. Located in a rural area of Japan, Shimane Prefecture is now facing a shortage of health care professionals, especially physicians. To help solve the physician shortage, we introduced ‘the physician shortage area program’, which seeks to recruit, admit and prepare medical students from Shimane, who will, upon completion of residency training, locate and practice in rural Shimane as primary care physicians. We also introduced a rural experience program and implemented the program in our medical course to help students understand the importance of patient-centered medicine in rural settings and motivate them to become interested in rural medicine. We expect that the students who have studied through the program to choose to practice rural primary care medicine in Shimane in the near future. We have now started to apply the program to our postgraduate medical course. We have also built a collaborative relationship with the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, which provides an excellent rural medical education program called “WWAMI program”. It is a joint education program among UW and the states of Washington,Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Since 2006, we have visited teachers and medical staff at UW to learn more about the program and get feedback from them on our own medical education system. We also have visited other overseas universities and hospitals which are well-known for their prominent medical educational programs. From 2005-2013, more than 240 staff, most of whom were faculty members, have visited such universities and hospitals overseas to improve their clinical skills and have a better understanding of rural medicine.Through the implementation of our unique rural medical education program and enhancement of international collaboration, we will continue to contribute to better healthcare service in our own community.