Dear Medical College of Georgia Friends,

Potential cap on National Institutes of Health indirect funding still uncertain

As you all well know, late in the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 7, the National Institutes of Health announced a 15% cap for indirect costs associated with their grants, to take effect the following Monday. These expenses, often called facilities and administrative costs, or F&A, support general operations. Federal agencies reimburse institutions for the F&A costs they incur to support research overall. Indirect costs are not easily linked to a specific project or program, but they are essential to conducting research effectively, efficiently, safely and securely. Our current negotiated rate is 54% and a 15% cap could mean losses of around $15 million a year.

More news came the evening of Monday, Feb. 10, when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the cap. A hearing took place this morning. More updates to come.

All of that to say, I want to assure you that the commitment to the research done here is stronger than ever – at every level. We have the steadfast support of our executive leadership team, including President Keen; of the University System of Georgia; and of our elected officials. Building a new translational research building here to broaden the impact of the amazing work of our scientists and physician-scientists remains a top priority. Proof of that came when Governor Kemp recommended $99.8 million for our translational research building in his FY25 amended budget. That recommendation received overwhelming support in the House, and we have no reason to doubt that it will receive similar support in the Senate.

Annual State of the College address spotlights the strengths of our medical school

I hope that many of you were able to join me earlier today to hear this and many other updates about your medical school at the annual State of the College Address. It’s always a privilege to be able to demonstrate the strengths of MCG and highlight the achievements of the past year. Here were some of the high points of today’s presentation.

•       This year’s incoming freshman class, our bicentennial class, was our largest ever, with 304 students, thanks in part to the opening of our four-year Savannah Campus. That ranks us among the top five largest medical school class sizes in the nation.
•      Our vision for Savannah includes a joint health sciences campus with Georgia Southern and the Dental College of Georgia. We are also making plans to co-brand an internal medicine residency program with our great and longtime educational partners at St. Joseph’s Candler. The ultimate goal is to build a medical research and innovation hub in that area of the state.
•       This January was the official opening of our long-awaited regional campus in Atlanta in partnership with Wellstar Kennestone. We currently have 17 students completing their core clerkships there with a capacity for 24 per class.
•       We are eagerly awaiting the new rankings from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, but here’s what we do know: research funding at MCG went from $60.5 million last year to nearly $72 million this year. That’s a nearly 20% increase, and entirely due to the hard work of you all. Thank you for these continued efforts.
•        Our Center for Teleheath has been renamed the Center for Digital Health to reflect a closer collaboration with our partners at Wellstar. It continues to grow, expanding to more and more underserved hospitals; offering innovative programs like Hospital at Home; and soon, expanding our Tele OB program to help improve our state’s maternal and fetal mortality rates.

If you were unable to join us in person today, you’ll be able to watch the recorded livestream here soon.

For me, another high point of this annual event is getting to recognize the hard work so many of you do on behalf of this medical school, our students, and the communities you serve.

Dr. Doug Patten receives Community Advocate Award

This year, I was glad to honor Dr. Doug Patten, who, two decades ago, actually helped us establish and now leads our very first regional clinical campus – the Southwest Campus, based in Albany at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. Back then he was serving as CMO at Phoebe and helped us recruit the very first dean, Dr. Iqbal Khan. Without their combined leadership, and leadership in our Office of Academic Affairs, I think it’s safe to say there may have never been a Southwest Campus. That’s why, when the opportunity arose in 2017, we lured him back to MCG from the Georgia Hospital Association.

Dr. Patten is not a native of Southwest Georgia, but his heart certainly belongs there. A graduate of LSU’s School of Medicine, he did his surgery residency at the University of South Florida, and in short order, moved to tiny Cordele, Georgia – about an hour up the road from Albany – to join the rural surgery practice of Dr. Bill Pannell, a 1972 graduate and longtime surgery clerkship director for the SW Campus. It didn’t take long for him to take notice of how low socioeconomic status and lack of access to health care created an imperfect melting pot of complicated health problems for the people he treated.

He’s made it his life’s work to help change that – by bringing hundreds of medical students each year through his campus in hopes that one day they may return there to serve; by ensuring residential students at that campus get involved in public health; by creating programs to positively affect the health of people in the region – like the initiative he helped students launch to educate area schoolchildren and their parents about how best to manage their diabetes; and by ensuring students from high schools and colleges in the area truly understand that a career in medicine is a possibility for them. Community advocate certainly describes Dr. Patten to a T.

Dr. Christy Ledford honored for Professionalism

Another name on this campus that could be synonymous with “community” is Dr. Christy Ledford, who received this year’s Professionalism Award. In addition to her role as vice chair of research for the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Dr. Ledford is the Curtis G. Hames Distinguished Chair and director of HamesNet, the department’s primary care research network. You may know that its namesake was the first physician to identify the link between environment and heart disease, launching the 40-year Evans County Heart Study – all from tiny Claxton, Georgia. Dr. Hames always considered himself a country doctor who loved his community and personally saw up to 50 patients each day.

That’s a legacy that Dr. Ledford also strives to embody, serving as principal investigator on millions of dollars in grants focused on interventions to improve health outcomes, but truly believing that it’s her job to not just help develop programs that support community health but to prove that what is being done actually works. Her philosophy is simple: to affect any kind of change you must listen and really hear what communities say they need. And that’s exactly what you’ll find her doing when she’s not teaching research methods to our medical students.

Her work is paying off. Last year, she and Dr. Samantha Jones, a cancer biologist and pharmacologist here, were awarded a $1.9 million grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to co-lead a study aimed at demonstrating the most effective engagement approach for underrepresented and vulnerable populations in clinical research. Also last year, she and Brittany Pooser, the executive director of the Hub for Community Innovation, were named finalists for the NIH’s Build UP Trust Challenge for their work on the COACHS initiative, which connects athletic trainers within Richmond County schools to the education and health sectors. And that’s just two examples of her truly impactful work. Congratulations, and thank you, Dr. Ledford.

Dr. Ralph Turner is 2025 MCG Advocate Award winner

I think we can all agree that new partnerships can come with unique opportunities and challenges. That’s just one reason I’ve been so grateful to work alongside my friend Dr. Ralph Turner, inaugural senior vice president and hospital president at our great educational partner, Wellstar MCG Health, to help combine the cultures of one of Georgia’s largest health systems and the state’s flagship medical school. It’s also one of many reasons I wanted to honor him with this year’s MCG Advocate Award.

Blending people, processes and technologies (EPIC implementation anyone?), is not for the meek, but time and time again during our little over a year-old partnership with Wellstar, Dr. Turner has rightly earned his reputation as an enthusiastic and patient leader who truly listens, gets to know people that make the place, and is always ready to seek solutions when problems arise.

This native of Valdosta and football aficionado likely honed his can-do mindset while he served in U.S. Army honorably for more than 21 years. He launched his health care career at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as director of the Clinical Engineering Division and has held leadership roles at large complex health care organizations like MedStar Washington Hospital Center, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and Cleveland Clinic. He joined Wellstar in 2022 as SVP and president at Wellstar Paulding Hospital in Hiram, Georgia. I’m certainly glad he’s here.

Dr. Stephen Chitty is campus associate dean for MCG Savannah’s Brunswick campus

Another person I’m thankful is here is Dr. Stephen Chitty, medical director of critical care at our Brunswick teaching partner, Southeast Georgia Health System, who was recently named campus associate dean at the Brunswick location of our MCG Savannah campus. Dr. Chitty is no stranger to MCG. He is a 1999 alumnus who did his residency training at the University of Tennessee and a fellowship at the LSU School of Medicine before coming to Brunswick to practice. He serves on our Alumni Board and he’s also taught MCG students, sharing with them his passion for caring for patients in the intensive care unit, since the Brunswick Campus was established. He has a reputation as a confident yet humble and compassionate physician who is an advocate for his patients and a persistent supporter of our students. I am confident that, in this new role, he will continue to have a lasting impact on generations of future physicians.

Macon Regional Reception is always a great way to connect with other amazing alumni

It always makes me proud to hear about the ways MCG alumni are serving their communities and representing their medical school so well. And I always welcome any chance I get to connect with them across our state. This week brought that chance when more than 50 people attended our Macon Regional Reception. There’s always a lively group at this annual gathering and they always ask a lot of great questions about what’s happening at MCG. My thanks to Dr. William “Bill” Brooks, a 1967 graduate and our 2022 Distinguished Alumnus for Loyalty, for hosting us at Idle Hour Country Club. 1977 graduate, Dr. Price Corr, who serves as our current Alumni Association president, and his wife Terry traveled from Albany, to be with us as well. It was also a treat to have former University System of Georgia Regent W. Allen Gudenrath and his wife Lynda there to show support for MCG and our alumni. Other notable attendees were the ever enthusiastic and always supportive, Dr. Anil Puri, ‘05, our former Alumni Association president, who came over from Milledgeville; Dr. Cindy Mercer, ’78, who serves on our Alumni Board; as well as several representatives from our MCG Foundation, including Ian Mercier, president and CEO; and board members, Juli Means; Dr. Ronald Spearman, ’74; and Dr. Mark Ellison, ’82.

I also want to express my continued thanks to my fellow road warrior, Wes Zamzow, assistant vice president for alumni engagement and annual giving, and his staff, for always planning and perfectly executing these events in every corner of our state. I look forward to our next gathering next month in Gainesville.

My best to you always,

David C. Hess, MD

Dean, Medical College of Georgia

Upcoming Events

March 15 – Deadline to order regalia for MCG Hooding Ceremony. Order here: regalia

March 18 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium

March 21 – MCG Match Day

April 18 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium

April 25-27 – Alumni Weekend, https://www.augusta.edu/alumniweekend/

May 8 – MCG Hooding Ceremony, 2pm, James Brown Arena

May 29-31 – MCG Faculty Development Conference, Jekyll Island