"Learning where others go on vacation" - this is the motto of a teaching project at the Faculty of Medicine that aims to awaken students’ desire to work as a doctor in the countryside. In order for this ÖLandlust" to develop in future doctors, they are specifically placed in rural regions of Saxony during their studies. Since April 1, 2025, the district of Leipzig has been involved with around 30 teaching doctors, while Vogtland and North Saxony have been established for five years.
"Our Faculty of Medicine trains doctors, dentists, pharmacists/pharmacists and midwives to ensure comprehensive medical care in Saxony. We are aware of this enormous responsibility and are in close coordination with the relevant ministries to fulfill this central task," says Ingo Bechmann, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, confirming the funding of this teaching project.
The district of Leipzig has been the third partner region in Saxony since April 1 and offers interested medical students the right opportunities for every semester and every specialty, such as block placements, work shadowing, clinical traineeships or sections of the practical year. The Institute of General Practice, headed by Markus Bleckwenn, provides support with the organization. in total, there are over 33 teaching physicians in 21 academic teaching practices in the district of Leipzig who work together with the Institute of General Practice. In addition, further collaborations are in the works, meaning that the choice for students to get to know locations in rural areas is growing," explains Prof. Sebastian Stehr, Dean of Human Medicine. In addition to general medical teaching practices, six specialist practices provide an insight into their outpatient work: ear, nose and throat medicine, neurology, orthopaedics, trauma surgery, dermatology, ophthalmology and cardiology. The Sana-Klinikum Borna is represented as a regional teaching hospital, and further hospital partnerships are being sought.
In the survey of Leipzig medical graduates in 2023, 48.8% stated that they could imagine working as a rural doctor, more than two thirds of them in Saxony. In 2010, the figure was only 33.3 percent. A consequence of medical internships in rural areas? some of Leipzig’s medical students come from Saxony, but most of them come from all over Germany. Our teaching project helps to make the Saxon districts visible as a possible future place of work. We have started with two Saxon model regions, the Vogtlandkreis and the district of Nordsachsen. The trial phase, which was scientifically supported, showed that this teaching project can attract many students for internships in small towns and rural areas," explains project manager PD Dr. Tobias Deutsch and continues: "That’s why we want to systematically expand these opportunities. The district of Leipzig is the first new partner region and is easy to reach thanks to its proximity to Leipzig. An expansion to the whole of Saxony is conceivable in the future."
The teaching project called MiLaMed stands for "Central German concept for the longitudinal integration of rural medical training content and experience into medical studies". On the website www.milamed.de, students can find various information for each of the three Saxon regions, such as a brief description of the region or interviews with doctors, as well as ideas for excursions in their free time. the search function can be used to filter for specific specialties, doctors, locations or by keyword search. The stored map helps to get an impression of the location of the practice or clinic. In addition to the short profile, each entry also has a detailed description with information on facilities, accessibility, accommodation options and contact details for the respective location. The Faculty of Medicine’s MiLaMed project provides support in finding suitable funding opportunities, for example to reimburse travel and accommodation costs at the internship location. In some cases, funding can also be applied for directly via MiLaMed. A total of 84 GPs, 50 outpatient doctors from other specialties, 15 clinics, two health authorities and a rural ambulance service are currently involved in the Saxon MiLaMed network.
Initiatives to strengthen general practice and rural care
With around 3,600 students, the Faculty of Medicine at Leipzig University is the largest educational institution for students of human medicine, dentistry and midwifery, as well as the only one for pharmacy in Saxony. There is a wide range of further study opportunities for the next generation of general practitioners and rural doctors, for example with the Leipzig Competence Pathway in General Medicine (LeiKA) and the Leipzig location of the Competence Center for Continuing Education in General Medicine Saxony (KWASa).
