“The time is always right to do what is right.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
New Leader … of the Basics
OK, no science lessons this week… but we do have great news about basic sciences! Please join me in congratulating and welcoming Dr. Matthew A. Boegehold who has joined us as the very first Chairman of the Department of Basic Sciences at the Athens campus. Dr. Boegehold comes to us from West Virginia University School of Medicine where he was Associate Chair for Research of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. He got his PhD in physiology from the University of Arizona in Tucson and was a postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University. He’s super interested in how we control the tone of our blood vessels – including the tiniest blood vessels – and how that tone is messed up in hypertension. Like most of our fabulous faculty, he is a national contributor in his field, in fact he recently finished up a term as President of the Microcirculatory Society and recently started as a Councilor of the Cardiovascular Toxicology Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology. As the new chair, Dr. Boegehold will teach and mentor junior faculty, assist with curriculum development, assign faculty to cover curricular needs, and generally promote excellence in teaching, scholarship, and research. We are excited to be working with yet another great colleague.
Found Farewell… to Two Other Great Colleagues
This week we also bid adieu to two great colleagues. Dr. Terry Steyer who happened to be our very first Clinical Sciences Chairman at the Athens campus, is already at his new job as the Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Also, Dr. Norm Chutkan, who has chaired our Department of Orthopaedic Surgery for a half dozen years, is headed to Phoenix to head up the musculoskeletal institute at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. Please join me in congratulating and thanking these two fine individuals and leaders for their service to MCG and in wishing them the very best in their new pursuits. Dr. Monte Hunter has graciously agreed to serve as the interim Orthopaedic Chair.
Taking Care of Residents and Patients … Every Day
Right before Christmas, you may remember that we talked about the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education coming to look at the clinical learning environment where our residents help provide care to patients. This is part of the ACGME’s expanded emphasis on the quality and safety of the environment for residents and patients. Great idea! Our clinical system was among the first 100 in the country to be surveyed in this manner. Now, one of our own is among the first CLER – Clinical Learning Environment Review – volunteer reviewers!! And, we can’t think of an individual who is more attuned to the best interests of residents and patients alike. Dr. Walt Moore will be going to ACGME headquarters in Chicago shortly to train as a CLER site visit surveyor. He continues to make us proud!
Helping the Next Generation … of Resident Educators
And speaking of GME, Drs. Shelley Nuss and Jonathan Murrow from our Athens campus just got a grant from the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine for a regional GME Faculty Development Workshop. This incredible gathering, just scheduled for Sept. 6 at the Medical Partnership campus, will support the University System of Georgia’s effort to add more residency positions in our state by bringing more hospitals into residency training. Talk about team players!! This promises to be a great opportunity for assisting these newer educators in things like best practices in bedside instruction and helping residents incorporate high value care into their clinical practice. High value care, or HVC, means always looking at the total picture, not just how much a test or procedure costs, but also always calculating things like potential harm and benefit, to ensure that the decisions are best for a patient and family. Great stuff and looking so forward to this workshop. Thanks to Drs. Nuss and Murrow for their leadership in the important task of educating more physicians for our state. Our colleagues at Athens Regional Medical Center and St. Mary’s Health Care System also are lending support and faculty from the Athens campus and Emory University will be the teachers. More to come!
Leading Well … Serving Better
Speaking of leadership, we were so fortunate to be part of a recent gathering of about 60 of our university’s leaders that focused on the science and practice of leading yourself. Truly an interesting perspective, ably led by Dr. Chip Souba, Dean of Dartmouth Medical School, that gave everyone a lot to consider. He rightly reminded us of four key leadership attributes that can serve all of us well in any situation as well as those we are privileged to lead. These include awareness, authenticity, integrity, and commitment to something bigger than yourself. No doubt those of you who work so hard every day – and many nights – for our medical school and our profession, are living examples of these key qualities. You could feel and hear the enthusiasm for these fundamentals in this room as well. Others who helped with the presentation were Ms. Kathi Becker, a leadership consultant who has been working with us now over a year; Dr. Bill Mallon, Director of organizational performance at the Association of American Medical Colleges, who was just here last month giving the same sort of common-sense, straight-talk advice about planning; and Ms. Julia Souba, a student at Darmouth who is a leader of Students Making a Difference, which provides books and other school supplies to underprivileged children. This was such a great opportunity to enhance our leadership and renew our commitment to each other and our institution. And, the first anniversary of our institution was the perfect time to do it! You can get a bigger taste of Dr. Souba’s leadership perspective here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBBXlYMxIFA.
Attractive Magnet … Great Community
Last week we talked a little about our own rankings in research funding nationally. Here’s some similarly great news from our community. Davidson Fine Arts, one of our magnet schools in Richmond County, is ranked third among Georgia’s high schools and 81st among the top 100 public high schools in the USA by U.S. News & World Report. More evidence here of the great educating going on around us as well as the strength of our community. What a great place we call home. Congrats to our colleagues at Davidson!
Fiber Follow Up … Fill Up on This
So, we promised no science lessons this week but just in case… you want to read more yourself about the fascinating fiber findings we tempted you with last week, check out http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2014-01-15/researchers-say-niacin-could-prevent-colon-cancer and http://bit.ly/mcgfiber.
Farewell … to Another Great Alum and Individual
And finally today, we note the passing of another incredible professional, colleague and supporter of the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Martha McCranie as well as her husband, the late Dr. E. James McCranie, were both 1945 graduates of our school. In fact, Dr. Martha was one of only three women in her medical school class. She was a child psychiatrist and a wonderful teacher and clinician here for more than 20 years. Of note as well is her husband, also a psychiatrist, who served as Chair of our Department for more than two decades. Once again we find ourselves saddened by the loss of such a spirited individual but proud and thankful as well for her contributions to our school and to the practice of medicine.
Events
Jan. 20 –Martin Luther King Holiday
Jan. 23 – MCG Faculty Senate meeting, 5 p.m., Lee Auditorium.
Jan. 28 – President Ricardo Azziz’s State of the Georgia Regents University & Health System Enterprise Address, Maxwell Performing Arts Theater, noon, Summerville Campus.
Feb. 1 – Move date to an electronic system, TimeNet, for real-time tracking of leave balances as well as some changes to the Outside Professional Activities policy, see http://policy.gru.edu/5-1-6-outside-professional-activities/.
Feb. 3 – University Faculty Senate Meeting and Assembly, meeting, 5:30-6 p.m. and assembly, 6-7:30 p.m., Jaguar Student Activity Center Ballroom, Summerville Campus.
Feb. 13 – MCG Faculty Senate meeting, noon, Lee Auditorium.
Feb. 14 – A night of fun and Latin Dancing in support of the MCG student run Clinica Latina, a local clinic providing free primary health care services to uninsured patients in the community. The event begins at 7 p.m. at Surreal at Surrey in Surrey Center. Student tickets are $10, regular tickets, $15 per person, $25 per couple. A free salsa lesson is provided. More details coming soon.
Feb. 22 – Igniting the Dream, a one-day conference for high school or college undergraduates interested in a career in medicine., see bit.ly/IGNITE2014.
Feb. 27 –EII Health Sciences Education Grand Rounds, Using Mobile, Video Analysis Technology to Record and Evaluate Student Interviews: A Pilot Study, Dr. Marlene Rosenkoetter, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing, and Dr. Deborah Smith, Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., EC 1210.
March 6 – MCG Faculty Senate meeting and Awards Ceremony, 5 p.m., Lee Auditorium.
March 7 – EII Health Science Education Grand Rounds, Passing on the Fundamentals of Patient Care to a Tech-Saturated Generation of Learners, Dr. John Richard Pittman Jr., Visiting Professor, Emory University, 8-9 a.m., BT 1810.
March 13 – GRU University Senate Spring Assembly and Faculty Awards, 5-7:30 p.m., Alumni Center, Health Sciences Campus, Ballrooms A, B and C.
March 21 – Save the date! Our 2014 Match Day will be at noon on this day in Lee Auditorium.
April 3-4 – Composite Sate Board for Medical Educational quarterly board meeting will be held on the Southeast Campus, Savannah.
April 17 – EII Health Sciences Education Grand Rounds, Teaching Laparoscopic Skills through Validated Measures, Dr. Kelli Braun, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, noon-1 p.m., HB 4010.
April 18 – MCG Alumni Association Raft Debate, 5-7 p.m., location to be determined.
April 24-27 – The 2014 Alumni Weekend including the MCG Class Reunions & Alumni Banquet.
May 1 – Annual State of the Medical College of Georgia Address, noon, Lee Auditorium.
May 8 – Hooding Ceremony, 2 p.m., Bell Auditorium, with Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, President of the Association of American Medical Colleges, as guest speaker. Reception follows at the Old Medical College Building.
May 9 – GRU Graduation, James Brown Arena.
June 12 – Investiture Ceremony, 5-6:30 p.m., location to be determined.
Ongoing – The GRU Cancer Center is offering a two-step tobacco cessation service for all Georgia Regents University & Health System students and employees who need help quitting tobacco use. Step 1: Initial Visit and Health Assessment. Make an appointment by calling 706-721-6744 or on-line at www.grhealth.org (click on “Request Appointment”). Step 2: Tobacco Cessation Classes, one-hour group sessions for six weeks, provide tools and support to help you quit tobacco. Cessation classes are held on the Summerville and Health Sciences campuses. For more information, visit http://gru.edu/cancer/tobaccofree/.
Check out our MCG Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/grumcg and Twitter page as well.
Enjoy your long weekend!