-Sir William Osler
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Every day is Doctor’s Day …
You know we just love doctors! At our very core they are why we are, and we are very privileged to educate the next generation of them. We are so pleased when we are able to recruit the best and brightest to our hospitals and clinics to not only help educate the next generation, but to provide amazing care to our patients and families. We never cease to be inspired when they still insist on going yet another mile to also help find tomorrow’s preventions, treatments and cures. This week our nation officially celebrated Doctor’s Day. We hope we do that, at least in some small way, every day at our medical school. Certainly today we send a resounding ‘thank you’ to all – current and future – for choosing medicine and choosing us. We must also state our endless gratitude as well to our volunteer faculty, quite literally two thousand-plus physicians across Georgia, who share with our students their invaluable time and knowledge. We also are reminded here that our great doctors are members of our great teams and we acknowledge and respect the vital role each member plays. After all, we would not be us without all of you!
Every day is a fight against disease … And for patients
One thing we absolutely don’t like is cancer. In fact, cancer is one of those rare situations where even persistence is a really, really bad thing. Unfortunately cancer is really, really good at persistence. One way it persists is by avoiding our usually protective immune response, which should recognize cancer as the absolute invader that it is. The great news again here is that we have many mighty cancer foes right here at your medical school and Georgia Cancer Center. We are talking federally funded folks like our Dr. Kebin Liu, in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, who is trying to harness and direct the power of our immune system so we win and cancer dies. Perhaps the even greater news is that he, like you, also is inspiring and mentoring the next generation of cancer foes, folks such as graduate student Amy Paschall. We are delighted to share she was just awarded a prestigious Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work with Dr. Liu on how cancer suppresses the protective response of cytotoxic T cells. Great going to them both and please keep up this super-relevant work. Please see the full story here http://bit.ly/1RRwdau.
Every day and every person …
Again, you are an amazing lot- you compete and win wherever you go. As with our Dr. Liu, inspiring and preparing the next generation is in your DNA, and we -and the world- are so much the better for it. Meet Dr. Tanna Boyer, pediatric anesthesiologist, in our Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine who is already up to her elbows in education. She is (deep breath) director of development of the simulation program for our anesthesiology residents, lead career advisor to our fourth-year students who want to be the next generation of anesthesiologists, an academic house advisor – that’s one of the programs that helps bring a smaller size feel to the big medical student class size here in Augusta – and a lot more stuff. But she wants to do more, like develop a student curriculum in pediatric anesthesia and strengthen the one for residents, and even one for pediatric dental residents. You get the idea! Well, she has been selected a Leadership Education and Development Certificate Program, or LEAD, fellow at the Association of American Medical Colleges. This is an intensive, seven-year old program established by the AAMC’s Southern Group on Education Affairs to address a real gap in educational leadership training and professional development for mid-career medical educators who, like our Dr. Boyer, want to do even more. Hard to argue with any of this. We send our congratulations and our thanks to Dr. Boyer for her commitment to medical education. Did we mention she already completed a teaching scholars fellowship right here at the Educational Innovation Institute? Awesome.
An inspiration to the next generation
As you well know, all roads lead us back to our students, who, like you, our faculty, staff and residents, are simply the best. As an excellent example, students at our six-year old Partnership campus in Athens have quickly established, among many terrific things, a clear sense of commitment to their community. As part of their community health project course, they have been partnering with the Athens Community Council on Aging, or ACCA, and this year their project focuses on social isolation among the elderly. They have set up a fun social club called Refined Singles Unwind, which helps folks do just that. How terrific and salient is that! Our students involved include Thomas Beckworth, Jane Chang, Saadia Hasan, Max Green, Adolphia Lauture, John-Michael Perez, Sean Olinger and Danny Steinberg. Max shares that, not surprisingly, the students are having a great time as well. Yet another win-win for the team. We also have good information that campus dean Shelley Nuss was recently spotted delivering meals door-to-door as part of another great ACCA program up that way. You know what they say about great minds! Great going to all of the above.
Update on your State of the College
Finally today, some of you who are the most diligent consumers of info in these weekly writings may have noticed that the May date for the State of the College address is MIA from the events listing. We actually just moved the date for this recap of the amazing work you do and what lies ahead! Instead of wrapping up the academic year with it, we thought, let’s shake things up a bit and start the academic year with it. Also by then we’ll have the results of our LCME survey to share with you there! So your annual state of the College is now set fornoon, Friday Aug. 12 in the Lee Auditorium. We are hoping you will like this regrouping and always appreciate you and your feedback. Please mark those busy calendars.
Upcoming Events
April 11 – University Senate Meeting, 5:30-7:30 p.m., EC-1222, Health Sciences Campus.
April 15 – MCG Alumni Association sponsors the Raft Debate, Harrison Education Commons, doors open at 6 p.m., debate begins at 6:30 p.m.
April 24 – AU President and First Lady host A Toast to AU: A Celebration of our History and a Look to our Future at the Fountain at Main Entrance of the Summerville Campus, 4-5:30pm
April 26 – Daylong President Research Symposium, Lee Auditorium, details to come.
April 27 – Inaugural celebration and investiture of President Brooks Keel, 2 p.m. at The Augusta Convention Center, 901 Reynolds Street. Reception immediately following.
April 28 – Spring Induction Ceremony, AOA Honor Medical Society, 4 p.m., 1210-B Harrison Commons.
April 29 – MCG Faculty Senate, noon, Lee Auditorium.
April 29-May 1 – Alumni Weekend. On April 29, Department of Neurosurgery 60thanniversary lunch and CME, noon-4 p.m., BI3079; MCG Dean’s Reception, 5:30 p.m., Harrison Education Commons followed by MCG Alumni Association Banquet, 6:30 p.m., also at the Harrison Education Commons. April 30, MCG Alumni Association Board Meeting, 9:30 a.m., Harrison Education Commons; President’s Cookout, noon-2 p.m., at president’s home, Twin Gables, 920 Milledge Road; MCG Class Reunions, starting at 6:30 at the Augusta Marriott for Classes of 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006. May 1, MCG Emeritus Club Breakfast, Augusta University Alumni Center on 15th St., 9:30 a.m.; Memorial Service, 10:30 a.m., Alumni Center.
May 12 – Hooding 2016, Keynote speaker, Dr. Claire Pomeroy, President, Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, 2 p.m., Bell Auditorium, http://www.augusta.edu/mcg/students/hoodinggraduation.php.
May 13 – Graduation, 2 p.m., James Brown Arena.
June 16 – Investiture Ceremony, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Lee Auditorium.
Aug. 12 – New date for the State of the College address, noon, Lee Auditorium!
Nov. 5 – White Coat Ceremony, Bell Auditorium, 3 p.m.; reception to follow at the Old Medical College building.
Have a fun and safe spring break, and we’ll see you back here Friday after next!