Freedom cannot be bestowed

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

June 28, 2013

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

 

It’s Official … ‘‘Magnificent Seven” students start at Northwest Campus 

 

We are hitting yet another incredible milestone for medical education and our state’s need for more physicians! The first seven students – Dr. Leonard Reeves rightly calls them the “Magnificent Seven” – start at our new Northwest Georgia campus this coming week. Awesome! We are so fortunate that across our state, so many physicians, hospitals, and communities have opened their arms to our students, enabling a truly remarkable distributed model for medical education that ensures our students experience a real taste of the vast choices for practice today. We believe this gives our students their best opportunity to find what setting works optimally for them as it gives our large, populous and diverse state the best opportunity to find and retain physicians. Please mark your calendars now for the official campus ribbon cutting Oct. 15 in this beautiful area of our state.

 

More News from our Newest Campus… Radio Spot…

 

If you happened to be tuning in to Rome News Talk radio station WRGA a few weeks back, you may have heard a voice that is becoming increasingly familiar down this way. Dr. Leonard Reeves was on the air! For those of you who don’t know – which is probably most of us – he’s a veteran radio personality who still helps out regular radio Host Nelle Reagan from time to time. But recently Dr. Reeves worked with her to produce a whole week’s worth of shows. Topics covered everything from a student’s perspective on college and preparation to go to medical school (featuring his son Will), to guest speaker Rep. Katie Dempsey speaking about the significant work during the past legislative session as well as our new campus in Rome. Our radio star also talked with local leaders about the redevelopment of South Rome and topped off his series with Dr. David Hirsch from Harvard School of Medicine discussing the longitudinal integrated curriculum modeling, which we’ll be using at the Northwest Campus. Talk about multi-tasking! We congratulate Dr. Reeves on his way with words and with students and thank him for his incredible contributions to getting the new campus up and rolling. These are exciting summer times.

 

A Stately Visitor …. Gov. Deal Stops By Southwest Campus

A little farther south, the great news was Gov. Nathan Deal’s gracious visit to our Southwest Campus. He was the keynote at the new resident ceremony of our incredible partner, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, and was kind enough to include a quick tour of our campus in his visit. Incoming Albany freshman Satyam Veean and third-year Clay Hartley attended along with several of AHECs Pathway to Medicine students. It was a great opportunity for all. We very much appreciate the governor’s time and support!

 

The Numbers Add Up…to National Impact…

What a wonderful opportunity that Dr. Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao has been selected to present at the Joint Mathematical Meetings – the largest mathematics annual event anywhere – early next year in Baltimore. Dr. Rao will join over 6,000 mathematical professionals at the meeting. He will deliver his message about “Mathematics in Natural Resource Modeling” during a special session by the American Mathematics Society. Please follow this link to learn more about the meeting–http://bit.ly/15FtGlz

 

Still More Kudos … Top Educator

Dr. Bruce LeClair was recently honored by the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians as its Educator of the Year. We agree! LeClair is a dedicated physician and educator who is not only great at teaching at the bedside and in the classroom but, perhaps, in the more difficult setting of being a role model. You see he also directs the Department of Family Medicine’s Homeless Health Care Service and is Course Director for the Homeless Clinic Initiative. In fact, many years ago now, he worked with our student members of the American Medical Women’s Association to establish the Women’s Health Free Clinic. Since then, he has helped start other student-run free clinics. Certainly the work of Dr. LeClair and our students is inspiring and beneficial and we thank him and them for their service.

Safe Zone… Ensuring Inclusivity…

Faculty, staff, students, and deans from both the Summerville and the Health Sciences campuses continue planning for the creation of the GRU Safe Zone Program, part of a national initiative dedicated to creating safe and inclusive environments for individuals of all sexual and gender identities at our country’s colleges and universities. The program’s goals are to promote emotional and physical safety and to cultivate a respectful and supportive environment. What a terrific initiative! More to come.

 

Electronic Health Records… Progress…

The Steering Committee’s work to enhance the Electronic Health Records system is making good progress. The committee has a new leadership plan and has formed a new physician advisory committee to ensure more input into the process of updating this system by its biggest users. The members of the Physician Advisory Committee will address workflow from the clinician’s point of view. This is vital as we make efforts to enhance this system to aid the synchronicity of our records. Thank you to all who are putting in the elbow grease to get us where we need to be as we serve the largest population of patients in the area.

Breaking Vicious, Unhealthy Cycles … Fighting Blindness

Congratulations to Dr. Manuela Bartoli whose efforts to break the vicious cycle that can lead to blindness in patients with diabetes just earned a $1.8 million grant from the National Eye Institute. She wants to know  more about what happens to one of the body’s natural methods for dealing with free radicals that is significantly hampered in diabetes and whether something comparatively simple – a selenium supplement – can help protect the sight of these patients. This is an important and increasingly common problem in our country. We thank Dr. Bartoli for taking it on and we are betting she will be victorious. You can read more here: http://news.gru.edu/archives/9168.

Upcoming Events… 

June 28 – Last day of spring classes for first- and second-year students!  

July 31 – The MCG Alumni Association will have a Freshman Brunch at 10:30 a.m. at the Augusta Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

Aug. 1 – Early decision dates– AMCAS Application deadline and Secondary Application deadline due today.

Aug. 5 – First day of class. 

Aug. 15 – Please mark your calendars for a kick-off to start the new school year while celebrating and learning more about the full spectrum of services at GRU and GRHealth. From 3-7 p.m., the Christenberry Fieldhouse on the Forest Hills Campus will be filled with exhibits, information and representatives from throughout the university and health system.

Sept. 13 – Mark your calendars for noon and the first MCG Faculty Senate meeting for the 2014 academic year. The event will be held in the Lee Auditorium.

Oct. 12 – Save the date for the annual White Coat Ceremony. Please stay tuned for details.

Oct. 15 – Grand opening of the Northwest Georgia campus based in Rome.

Check out our MCG Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/grumcg and Twitter page as well #Follow.

Enjoy the weekend and the Fourth of July holiday!