Dear Medical College of Georgia Friends,

MCG is and will remain accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education

We’ve talked many times in these writings about our recent reaccreditation site visit from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body for the nation’s medical schools. While this January’s visit from our site survey team only lasted half a week, it was the culmination of years of hard work and preparation by many of you. I am happy to tell you today that your hard work has paid off. Earlier this month, we received our formal letter from the LCME letting us know the wonderful news —MCG is and will remain fully accredited! We will have a virtual follow-up visit sometime in the next two years to address citations, but it is important to remember that timely attention to citations and follow-up by the LCME is part of their formal process. These are times of enormous change at MCG, with a new health system partner in Wellstar and a new clinical campus there in Atlanta; a relatively new 3+ curriculum; leadership changes; and the opening of a new four-year campus in Savannah among them. Our accrediting body’s desire to see demonstrated results of how these things are working well is not unexpected. My thanks to you all, and especially to our LCME executive leadership team – Vice Dean, Dr. Mike Brands; Dr. Andria Thomas, our senior associate dean for evaluation, accreditation and CQI; Dr. Ashley Saucier, assistant dean for evaluation, accreditation and CQI; and Dr. Ruchi Patel, our basic science faculty lead.

A virtual follow up visit will happen sometime over the next two years

Citations as outcomes from an LCME site visit are a normal part of the review and reaccreditation process. But I also see them as opportunities for improvement – and that is something we are always working toward. It’s like Mark Twain once said: “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”

Here are a few examples of what we’re already working on: The survey team gave us a citation for financial aid/debt management counseling/student educational debt, pointing out what we already knew – that we need more financial aid counselors for MCG. Another citation was for personal counseling/mental health/well-being programming, and we are addressing that by hiring an additional psychiatrist that will be available to our students. The team also cited us for research opportunities, and we have already restructured the Educational Innovation Institute and streamlined the process for students to find opportunities for research and giving them time within our curriculum to do it. We also need to work on our career advising and we have made great strides in the last year in this area. I know that I speak for us all when I say that we look forward to working with the LCME to ensure MCG continues to provide students with the outstanding medical education experience it is known for.

Dr. Koosh Desai participates in White House “Cancer Cabinet” as part of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot

You all know, I hope, that I believe the true secret to MCG’s success is its people – its faculty, staff, students and alumni. Your constant work to improve this medical school, your professions, your communities and the world at large impresses and motivates me every day. Here’s one example. Dr. Koosh Desai should be no stranger to those of you who read the Dean’s Diary regularly. That’s because this 2016 graduate, Albany internist, and assistant dean at our Southwest Campus, keeps giving us great things to say about him. Just last week he was a member of a panel for a webinar that is part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot. The event was designed to provide progress updates, foster new conversations and provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with valuable feedback on this national effort to eradicate this terrible disease. For his part, Dr. Desai updated the group on his work to reduce the rates of colon cancer in our state, particularly in its most underserved areas. As a resident at MCG and Wellstar MCG Health he worked to identify affordable and convenient alternatives to colonoscopy and offer those alternatives to patients at Georgia FQHCs. He continues similar work today as medical director of the Georgia Colorectal Cancer Control Program. This five-year, CDC-funded program began in July 2020 and allows access to free colorectal cancer screenings to people in Southeast and Southwest Georgia. Thank you for your continued work on behalf of some of Georgia’s most vulnerable, Dr. Desai. And thanks for always making your medical school so proud.

Third-year student, Delaney Metcalf, selected as 2024 Gold Student Summer Fellow

Here’s another example of the people who make MCG so great. Delaney Metcalf, a third-year student at our AU/UGA Medical Partnership in Athens, is one of just 13 medical students in the nation to be selected as a 2024 Gold Student Summer Fellow. These fellowships are offered by the Gold Foundation annually to provide opportunities for medical students to deepen their understanding of health inequities, advance culturally responsive care and to direct attention toward community health needs. These fellows get to experience and explore health care beyond hospital walls, something that, as an MCG student, I am sure Delaney is very familiar with.

Her project is called Emotional Resilience Training to Support Care Partners of Patients Living with Dementia. She will work to address the significantly higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and physical health struggles reported by care partners of people living with dementia as compared to non-caregivers. As an example, nearly 60% of them rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high. As many as 40% report symptoms of depression, according to the CDC. Often viewed as the “invisible patient,” care partners bear significant mental and physical health challenges that often go unnoticed by physicians. Delaney will work to design and implement a training program for emotional resilience, composed of three sessions, at a monthly local care partner support group. The program will combine both emotional regulation techniques and heart-focused breathing for care partners of people living with dementia. Great and truly impactful work.

We welcome our largest freshman class ever on Monday

It is hard to believe it is finally here, but next Monday, we begin welcoming the largest group of freshman medical students we have ever had – 304 total. I know they will become the next group of MCG greats like Dr. Desai and Delaney. They also include our first group of 40 students in Savannah – but more on them next time. They are also the class that will graduate medical school exactly 200 years from our founding in 1828. That sounds like a lot to live up to, but I trust that our Admissions Office and Admissions Committee selected the best possible group to continue the great legacy of MCG.

It will be week that is chock-full, and I know, at times, will feel like drinking from a fire hose. It will also hold many special and memorable moments for these new medical students. If they asked, my advice to them would be: Sit back. Soak it in. You belong here and we are here to support you every step of the way. Welcome to what I believe is the best medical school in the country.

My best to you all,

David C. Hess, MD

Dean, Medical College of Georgia

Upcoming Events

ly 26 – MCG Savannah at Georgia Southern Ribbon Cutting, 11 am, Armstrong Campus, Savannah

August 16 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium