Gaining Momentum on Several Fronts
October 1, 2010

Dear Colleagues-Friends:

Today’s Dean’s Diary is brief and features 3 highlights of this week……

On Saturday, we hosted Family Day and our White Coat Ceremony. The day turned out to be a great success… Honoring 230 talented students – the largest class ever in MCG’s history – all of whom seemed to enjoy themselves and their relatives were very happy and proud. Dr. Azziz gave an invigorating speech about professionalism and our privileged role in society. It was a fun day overall and I thank our faculty and staff for all their hard work in support of this successful day.

On Wednesday, the MCGHS board approved a new integrated physician leadership model for our system. The roles of Chief Medical Officer and of Chief Quality Officer – formerly each a hospital-focused position – will now take on enterprise-wide roles with responsibilities across our entire clinical system. Additionally, the MCGHS board approved a new position of VP for Clinical Affairs which will add further to the integration of our clinical services and will help us to advance centers of excellence. We are delighted that our colleague and friend David Terris, M.D., chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, will serve as Interim VP for Clinical Affairs. Our thanks to David for his leadership and let’s give him our full support.

Yesterday, we learned that Dr. Carlos Isales and his collaborators – Mark Hamrick, Ph.D. and William Hill, Ph.D., Dept Cell Biology and Anatomy, Xingming Shi, Ph.D. Dept of Pathology, Maribeth Johnson, M.S. Dept of Biostatistics, Wendy Bollag, Ph.D. Dept of Physiology, and Mohammed Elsalanty, M.D., Ph.D. Dept of Oral Biology, College of Dental Medicine – received a phenomenal final evaluation score on the their federal Program Project Grant application…. They received a score of 1.0 with a percentile of 1%… An outstanding achievement. Please congratulate Carlos and colleagues when you next see them.

Thank you and enjoy this coming weekend.

Best Wishes,