Dear Medical College of Georgia Friends,
Ribbon cutting for Savannah Campus sees a packed house
A week ago today, we officially opened our newest four-year campus, MCG Savannah at Georgia Southern University. In a classroom packed wall-to-wall with more than 300 people, we cut the ceremonial ribbon and opened the doors to 41 new medical students who will live and learn, and hopefully eventually practice, in Southeast Georgia. The excitement in the room was so palpable it’s hard for me to put into words. So, I’ll paraphrase President Russell Keen’s: “This new campus in Savannah will allow us to extend a promise made nearly 200 years ago when MCG was founded by Dr. Milton Antony, and one which we are honored to fulfill every single day of our existence – to educate and train physicians for the sons and daughters of Georgia.” It truly is an honor to do so.
We had many distinguished guests there with us: Speaker Jon Burns, Senator Ben Watson, Senator Max Burns, Senator Billy Hickman, Representative Butch Parrish, Representative Jesse Petrea, Representative Bill Hitchens, Representative Edna Jackson, Representative Ron Stephens, Chancellor Sonny Perdue, Regent Everett Kennedy, Regent Patrick Jones, former Regent Don Waters (who lends his name to Georgia Southern’s Waters College of Health Professions), Georgia Southern University President Dr. Kyle Marrero, and my friend and longtime supporter of MCG in Savannah, Paul Hinchey, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Candler Health System.
We also had representatives on hand from the offices of US Senator Raphael Warnock, US Senator Jon Ossoff, US Congressman Rick Allen and US Congressman Buddy Carter. Our endless thanks to all of them, as well as Governor Brian Kemp, the entire Georgia legislature and the Board of Regents, for their recognition of the impact MCG has on the state of Georgia and for their investment in its essential growth. My thanks and congratulations go as well to our founding Campus Dean, Dr. Elizabeth Gray, and her amazing faculty and staff, for working at breakneck speed to stand this campus up in just over a year. That has to be some sort of record.
Stethoscope presentations across all three four-year campuses allow MCG alumni to make an impact on our students from day one
The energy around the opening of this new campus was evident even in the days leading up to the ribbon cutting. In fact, the night before the event, over 100 people, including these 41 new students and their families gathered at our Savannah favorite and once MCG alum-owned, Vic’s on the River, for a formal ceremony, where we presented them with their first stethoscopes. We were also joined there by MCG greats like Dr. Price Corr, our MCG Alumni Association President who came all the way from Albany; Savannah Urologist and a 1999 graduate who also teaches our students down that way, Dr. Buffi Boyd; her mentor and 1974 graduate, retired Savannah plastic surgeon, Dr. Dan DeLoach, who was also one of the first donors to support our new four-year campus; as well as Roberta Kamine-Haysman, who along with her husband, 1971 graduate and retired Savannah allergist/immunologist, Dr. Melvin Haysman, gave us a significant gift to endow the Stethoscope Program. Since we started the program in 2021, our alumni and other donors have provided 1,100 stethoscopes to our students. Giving out these quintessential tools of medicine to our freshman students (we did so in Augusta on July 23 and in Athens just yesterday, making that 304 handed out just this year) is one of my favorite ways to welcome them to our profession.
We hosted our largest regional alumni reception ever in Savannah
Once the stethoscopes were handed out, we opened the doors to two more large rooms in Vic’s and hosted our annual regional alumni reception. We needed all that space because this was the largest crowd we’ve ever had for one of these events and we were packed to the gills with over 200 people who came out on a soggy Savannah night to support our medical school. It truly was a terrific gathering. I must extend my thanks to our staff from Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement for their hard work making events like these regional receptions and stethoscope presentations so successful. I want to particularly thank Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving Wes Zamzow, and his staff, Allison Toney, director of alumni engagement; Kelly Schulte, director of annual giving; and alumni engagement coordinators, Maddy Elledge and Katie Chavous, for being on site and helping coordinate such a massive effort. Their innovative ideas, flexibility and leadership have helped us grow participation and attendance at these and other great alumni events. I know even bigger and better days are ahead.
President Keen outlines initial funding priorities for fiscal year 2025; big investment in research among them
I feel like these are some of the most exciting times in my nearly four decades at MCG. And the momentum keeps growing. In fact, when Dr. Keen announced Augusta University’s initial funding priorities for this fiscal year in July, a large investment in MCG was among them. With our eye toward the goal of reaching Top 60 in National Institutes of Health funding by 2030, our university’s leadership has committed $5.8 million to recruit top-tier talent in fields that will significantly enhance our research capabilities and advance knowledge in critical areas of study. This is part of a strategic initiative to hire an eventual 30 basic research scientists.
I’ve said it many times – MCG punches well above its weight. We have some of the most productive research faculty in the country. We currently rank 68th among US medical schools with nearly $60.5 million in NIH funding. But that doesn’t tell the true story. Among the 49 US medical schools with less than 700 faculty, we rank 2nd. Among the 72 with less than 1,000 faculty, we rank 11th. Adding more scientists who will lead pioneering research projects, mentor students and collaborate with our existing faculty is the path to top 60 and is the way we will continue to strengthen MCG and AU’s reputation and a “hub of innovation and discovery.” We look forward to the challenge. Thank you to Dr. Keen and the AU Executive Cabinet for your investment.
Vascular Biology Center tops the charts in NIH and American Heart Association funding
Not that any of you need proof of your productivity, but here’s some anyway. In 2023, our Vascular Biology Center (VBC) received $13 million in NIH funding. That was even before we received news of the recent award of an $11.3 million, five-year Program Project grant which will be led by Drs. Tohru Fukai and Masuko Ushio-Fukai. By our calculations, the VBC is currently generating about $11-12 million a year from the NIH for jobs in Georgia.
And there’s more. The American Heart Association is the largest medical charity in the United States and the single largest investor in cardiovascular research outside of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The VBC is a top recipient of their funding, earning about $3 million a year. In the state of Georgia, Augusta University ranks first in funding, edging out Emory. We rank 3rd in the Southeast and 15th nationally out of the 200 institutions that receive AHA dollars. Truly impressive work.
First Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellow arrives this month
Here’s even more momentum. Along with all of our new trainees that we welcomed in July, I wanted to let you know that we also will soon welcome our first maternal and fetal medicine fellow. This new three-year training program offers a balance of clinical and research exposure and will take one fellow per year. It was approved last September by the ACGME and is funded by the Georgia legislature with the hope of increasing the number of these physicians who can provide the best treatment and management of high-risk pregnancies, particularly to women in underserved areas. The program is led by Dr. Champa Woodham, who came to us from Mercer and the Medical Center Atrium Health Navicent in Macon, and wouldn’t have been possible without the steady leadership and influence of section chief Dr. James Maher. Our program is currently the only one approved in the state that provides in-utero fetal therapy training and our health system is Georgia’s only Level IV designated Regional Perinatal Center with the only facility in the state where newborns can get the full range of pediatric subspecialty services, all under one roof. Sounds like adding this new fellowship to our list of educational programs was a natural decision. Our first fellow, Dr. Amalia Brawley, who recently completed her OB/Gyn residency at Penn State Health’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, joins us this month.
Dr. Arlie Fiveash who helped design and develop Georgia Radiation Therapy Center passes away
In more somber news, I wanted to share with you all the recent passing of Dr. Arlie Fiveash, who died July 22. Dr. Fiveash completed medical school here in 1964, went to Baylor for his internship and then returned to us to complete a radiology residency. After a short stint serving at Lackland Air Force Base, he returned to us again. While he was on faculty, he helped design and develop the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center, where more than 1,000 people with cancer receive treatment each year. He practiced there until he retired in 2006. His legacy will surely live on in the countless people he treated during his time in practice, the immeasurable number of patients who will continue to benefit from the services the center offers today, the students and residents he mentored, and the untold numbers of young people he generously provided with financial support so they could further their education. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Sudden passing of Dr. Kapil Sethi leaves us shocked and saddened
It is also with deep sadness that I share that Dr. Kapil Sethi, longtime faculty member, leader of our Movement Disorders Program and of our National Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence, my mentor, colleague and dear friend and a friend to many of you, passed away this week after falling off a ledge and sustaining a traumatic brain injury while he was picking flowers for his family.
An internationally known expert in movement disorders, he led numerous clinical trials on Parkinson’s disease, restless leg syndrome, and other movement disorders, seeking better treatments for the patients he cared for so deeply. He was considered by many to be among the best movement disorders clinicians in the world. In 2021 we honored him with MCG’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
I remember reading his story that as a boy in India, he used to run away from school and jump on the backs of water buffaloes and bathe in a nearby stream to cool off. His teachers would have to drag him back to school kicking and screaming…until they figured out that the way to keep him there was to make his education interactive, even letting him teach and have a little fun. It was a lesson that changed his life and his career path and with that same teaching philosophy he no doubt inspired uncountable future neurologists. He was the consummate clinical neurologist, a legendary bedside teacher who stressed history taking and the bedside neurological exam.
I was fortunate to be able to travel to Asheville, where he had retired, to see him in the hospital with Dr. Thomas Swift and Dr. John Morgan and then, with my wife Diane, attend a service honoring his life earlier this week. The whole family is very dear to me and to many in Augusta. I trained with his dear wife and fellow neurologist, Ranjit. His daughter Aditi is a 2008 graduate of MCG and is advancing hospice care in Ashville; his son, Ajay is in neurology residency training at the University of Florida in Jacksonville; his other son, Gaurav lives in Greenville. His sudden and shocking passing certainly leaves a void in their lives, in many of ours and in his field. My thoughts and prayers remain with all of them.
My best to you all,
David C. Hess, MD
Dean, Medical College of Georgia
Upcoming Events
August 16 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium
September 20 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium
November 15 – Annual Body Donor Memorial Service, 1pm, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium
