“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers
Super Fine … Celebrating Some of our Best
This has been yet another super-busy and super-fine week at your medical school that included the annual Faculty Awards Ceremony held in conjunction with the Faculty Senate meeting. We so hope you were present for this important pause from doing to celebrate what you have done. We have to tell you that even though we hear from some of you that this weekly communication of ours could be just a hair shorter… a lineup like the one honored Thursday makes us want to go even longer with everyone’s names, accomplishments, photos, you get the idea. So we at least have to mention this year’s Outstanding Faculty Award recipient, Dr. Andy Albritton. Anybody that knows Dr. Albritton knows he is all about educating the next generation and that kind of commitment, as we are fortunate to say again and again, is frankly inspirational. We thank Dr. Albritton for his commitment and applaud and thank as well the other impressive honorees this week. Please decelerate for just a moment and check out the complete list here: http://news.gru.edu/archives/11610 http://news.gru.edu/archives/11610 http://news.gru.edu/archives/11610.
Anatomy of a Beautiful New Place … To Educate the Next Generation
Okay, here’s another magic moment this week! Our students started using our brand new, super-duper, modern, efficient and even beautiful gross anatomy lab. A couple of visitors equated this new facility to a modern operating room suite and it definitely has some of that going on. It’s like triple the previous space and has all this super-cool technology that will help make this truly essential learning experience for our students even better. Of course, the most magnificent presence in our gross anatomy labs will always be the bodies of our donors who wanted to help our students learn lessons that only the body can teach and, by doing so, make this a healthier and just plain better world for us all. We have to say, their commitment even gives Dr. Albritton a run for his educational money! Seriously, this beautiful new facility is just a terrific place for our students and a fitting, temporary place for our donors’ bodies. Many, many thanks to our awesome anatomy faculty, including Drs. Carol Nichols, Anna Edmondson, Charys Martin, and Bill Pearson as well as David Adams for their due diligence on this one. Thanks as well to our fabulous partner in facilities, Daniel Merrell, who oversaw this important construction project and is on point for the J. Harold Harrison MD Education Commons as well. Like we keep saying, we are fortunate on so, so many levels to have such stellar folks pulling together. Read more here: http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2014-03-06/georgia-regents-anatomy-lab-wows-students-faculty?v=1394157040l.
Teamwork Rocks … And We’re Definitely on a Roll
This kind of top teamwork was one of the many messages this week in President Azziz’s annual State of Georgia Regents University and Georgia Regents Health System talk. He spoke of your extraordinary efforts in accomplishing consolidation at an unprecedented pace and of the increased value consolidation returns to our students, our university and to each of us. He spoke of his honor at working with you to accomplish this mammoth undertaking. He spoke of the strong platform you have helped build as a stage for greatness. Indeed! Here’s another good reason to decelerate for at least a couple of heartbeats and celebrate what we have done and will do together.
Fighting Fat … Makes Quite an Impression
One more bit of bragging on our faculty. We told you last week about Dr. Alexis Stranahan’s research that gives us all another reason to fight the fat and hit the treadmill. As we suspected, it stirred up a fair amount of interest including this great piece by Gretchen Reynolds in the New York Times, http://nyti.ms/1casLmH. Congratulations again, Dr. Stranahan, and keep up the awesome work.
Have a Heart … And Move those Feet
In keeping with that notion, there is a super terrific chance this very weekend to get your feet moving – and get those brains working even better!! It’s the American Heart Association’s CSRA Heart Walk starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow at the North Augusta Greeneway. Hopefully you and your friends and family already have it on your schedule. Because guess what else? The time and effort also benefit your medical school! As we may have mentioned a time or 20, we rank 7th nationally in AHA funding and 1st in Georgia. Learn more here: http://heartwalk.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1072197. And, by the way, last we checked the site, our incredible community has not quite reached its $425,000 goal.
Because Purposeful Motion … Gets Us to a Great Place
This was at least one more super celebration this week. We told you at the tail end of January about the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education giving its thumbs up to the Partnership campus as a home for graduate medical education as well as the joint effort with St. Mary’s Health Care System to start the very first residency program up that way. Well that definitely called for celebration and St. Mary’s and the Athens community did it with style. St. Mary’s CMO Bruce Middendorf couldn’t help but comment on the impressive progress in a super-short time. We can’t either. Again, these incredible community partnerships across our state and our university’s partnership with our colleagues at the University of Georgia are simply invaluable in educating more physicians and advancing the health of Georgians.
Partnering for Patients … Shines the Best Light
Speaking of the value of partnerships, no doubt most of us around here – and around the world – have heard at least something about the novel, long-term relationship between our health system and Royal Philips to further enhance our patient- and family-centered health care by making certain that it’s maximally efficient and effective. We’re also collaborating to create a business model that ensures our health system is equipped with the very latest in everything from imaging equipment to lighting. We say: That’s an awesome alliance that is absolutely in keeping with what you all work hard to accomplish each day. According to at least one good source, we’ve been showing up in the subway system of the nation’s capital and the pages of The Washington Post as part of an ad campaign Philips is using to promote its relationship with us and four other key partners. We say: Capital idea!! Check out a related video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtuUhDjxcVg&index=2&list=FL-nnbegu9QfcjgcHjshrK9A.
And Doing for Others … Is just Terrific
Finally today we share just one more reminder of the caliber of our people and place. Later this month – can you believe it’s already March – Saumya Dave, a third-year student at the Partnership campus in Athens, will be attending the Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University. She will be sharing a micro-finance initiative that would empower women and improve maternal health among the underserved. That’s what we are/keep talking about. We wish Saumya the absolute best in this and all her endeavors. Learn more about the Clinton Global Initiative University here: http://www.cgiu.org/.
Events
March 8 – The American Heart Association’s CSRA Heart Walk gets underway at 8 a.m. at the North Augusta Greeneway. Learn more here: http://heartwalk.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1072197.
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 17 – Dr. Satish K. Tripathi, the 15th President of the University at Buffalo, kicks off the 2014 Presidential Lecture Series at noon, Lee Auditorium, Health Sciences Campus.
March 21 – Match Day, noon, Lee Auditorium.
March 21 – Nobel Prize winner Dr. Andrew V. Schully is the keynote speaker for GRU’s 30th Annual Graduate Research Day. Dr. Schully, an endocrinologist, will present at 12:30 p.m. in Room 1222 of the Health Sciences Building. For more info, visit http://news.gru.edu/archives/11489.
March 29 – The 14th annual Southeast Medical Wilderness Adventure Race (MedWAR) at Fort Gordon. For more information visit http://www.medwar.org/southeast/ and https://www.facebook.com/medwar.southeast.
April 3-4 – Composite State Board of Medical Examiners 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 –History of Health Sciences Lecture Series talk by Bill Andrews, Interim Chair and Program Director of the GRU Department of Medical Illustration on “The Gravid Uterus,” noon-1 p.m. in the Greenblatt Library’s Historical Collections and Archives Room. A copy of the rare book donated by MCG Alum Dr. Leslie Wilkes is on display.
April 24-27 – The 2014 Alumni Weekend including the MCG Class Reunions & Alumni Banquet. Actor and Writer Ben Stein and Fast Company magazine founding Editor William “Bill” Taylor are the keynote speakers. For more info visit, http://grualumni.com/alumniweekend.
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., Lee Auditorium.
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.
Don’t forget to spring those clocks forward when you head to bed Saturday night!