GAFP Residents

2011 End of Year Report from Georgia Residency Programs

As part of the Congress of Delegates Annual Meeting, all Georgia residency directors are asked to submit a progress report to the Academy. Excerpts on the exciting activities our residency programs have been engaged in during the past year follow.

Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency
Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital • Albany, GA

The Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency was successful in recruiting six residents for PGY 1 positions.

Recruitment and interviewing for academic year 2012 – 2013 started September 1, 2011. As of the date of this report, the residency has received 903 applications through the Electronic Residency Application Service.

Class of 2011

Richard Hawthorne, DO Hospitalist, Albany GA
Katherine Hemby, MD North Carolina
Daniel Obi-Ofodile, MD Hospitalist Fitzgerald GA
Gary Swartzentruber, MD Moultrie GA
Kiyoshi Yamazaki, MD Sports Med Fellowship Albany GA

This is our sixteenth graduating class, will bring the total number of successfully trained Family Medicine physicians to 79, including 56 practicing in Georgia.

Dr. George Fredrick presented "UPSTREAM RECRUITMENT: BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR RECRUITMENT" at the AAFP Residency Program Solutions National Conference in Kansas City in April 2011.

In July 2011, the second class for the Georgia Health Sciences University (MCG) clinical campus began with 15 students who will be completing their third and fourth year rotations at the Albany clinical campus and the neighboring participating hospitals.

Five hospitals in Southwest Georgia and MCG are developing a Consortium to increase Graduate Medical Education opportunities in Southwest Georgia. The five hospitals are: Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville, Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, and Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton.

Summer Student Programs:

Eight premed students from various locations in Southwest Georgia successfully completed the Pathways to Medical School program in July 2011.

Fourteen first and second year medical students from various medical schools completed the Summer Student externship in June and July 2011.

Family Medicine Residency Program at Memorial University Medical Center
Savannah, GA

The Family Medicine Residency Program at Memorial University Medical Center, Savannah, Georgia continues to improve and develop its program as we move into the fifth year under the direction of Robert Pallay, M.D. The commitment of our faculty as well as the many sub-specialty physicians we work with here at Memorial make the program a growing success and presence in Savannah and the rest of southeast Georgia.

The various mandated changes in curriculum, work hours, and supervision continue to be a challenge for our program as it is for all residencies around the country. Our FM inpatient team continues to be very busy but we have established a comfortable way of providing care between our four-resident team and the night float residents. Rather than it causing more upheaval, we have stabilized care in a way that we feel has improved continuity and quality of education. We know it will continue to demand more work and further tweaking, but we are comfortable that we are meeting our goals to train all of our residents in all the parts of Family Medicine that will allow them upon graduation to seek traditional FM practice or hospitalist or solely outpatient care. However, as we go through the final parts of applying and gaining recognition as a PCMH, it is our expectation that our residents will be comfortable learning how to practice in that environment and find quality positions based on that ability.

Continuing as one of our biggest challenges this past year is the integration and training of the increase in medical student numbers as the classes at Mercer University School of Medicine have increased in size. In addition to our full resident complement, there are routinely 7-9 medical students working with our faculty and residents either in our office or on the hospital team at all times. Although it has added an increased level of stress for all, the enjoyment we all receive from teaching the students more than makes up for that stress. We are also certain that having the students with us will lead to more of them choosing to enter family medicine as a career choice and, hopefully, have some of them choose each year to join our residency program. The recent establishment of the Accelerated Curriculum pilot at Mercer University School of Medicine here in Savannah will lead to accepting 3-4 first year students next spring into the program. That will allow these students who have expressed and definitive interest in Family Medicine to finish their medical school training in 3 years and then proceed immediately into our own residency program. Needless to say, the excitement and challenges from this new program will be many and we are excited to be on the cutting edge of this new program to bring more primary care doctors to the workforce sooner!

Finally, the last major program we have started with this new residency class is the beginning of our Integrative Medicine Residency curriculum. We developed a program and received grant support from the Weil Foundation and have joined the initial residency programs and early adopters in making this a regular part of the curriculum here in Savannah. In addition, our grant and the program includes a significant tech component to allow us to develop and adopt tele-learning and other similar changes that we hope will allow residents off-site to remain connected with not just the IMR program but other parts of the educational offerings from the residency.

We are developing a significant amount of support for this program within the Savannah community through fundraising opportunities through the Memorial Foundation, connecting the residents to various parts of the community not usually involved with the traditional medical establishment. It promises to be an interesting adventure for the faculty and residents and will, hopefully, allow us to begin to better understand some of the things being done in our sister residency program in Macon.

Finally, we added new residents this past June and continue to see a gradual improvement in the knowledge and quality of our resident classes. This improvement is appreciated throughout the entire Memorial campus as they realize the improving quality and knowledge of our residents in all three years. This year we again have significant interest in application to our program from medical students, both US and International graduates, and anticipate filling all 6 positions with excellent students.

Morehouse School of Medicine Residency Program
Atlanta, GA

The Morehouse School of Medicine Family Medicine residency program was established in 1981 and has since graduated 134 residents, with 88% of them practicing in the state of Georgia. Seven new residents entered the program on July1, 201: Drs. Mashanda Campbell PGYII, Adegoke Adeleke, Wallace Ajakaiye, Samir Ale, Jeffery Bouadou, Srividya Koduru and Alboury Sow.

Accomplishments:

The Morehouse Family Medicine Residency Program Celebrated 30 years as the first Residency Training program at Morehouse School of Medicine to be accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) June 24th in conjunction with the Residents Annual Graduation Dinner at the Cobb Energy and Performing Arts Center. Alumni who completed the program in 1983 and beyond came out to enjoy the celebration.
The program increased its complement of residents to 6 as of July 1 to become a 6-6-6 residency training program.
The 3rd Annual Resident Research Forum in the Department of Family Medicine was held June 15, 2011 at the National Center for Primary Care.
As of June 27, 2011, Dr. Valerie Montgomery-Rice became the Dean and Executive Vice President for Morehouse School of Medicine.
Morehouse Family Medicine had two residents represent the residency division at the National Medical Association (NMA) 2010 Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly meeting in August.
Dr. Susan Thomas abstract on "Lessons Learned from a Rusty Nail" was accepted for presentation during the National Medical Association (NMA) Family Medicine Section's Scientific Assembly in Washington, DC, July 23-27, 2011. Dr. Thomas also received an award in the resident forum.
Dr. Kanyan Xiao – was nominated and won the National Institute of Health travel award for the National Medical Association 2011 Academic Career Development Program.

Awards and recognitions:

Dr. Armel Simo received the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Resident Teacher of the Year for 2011 for Morehouse Family Medicine.
Drs. Donessa Fraser and Jose Ventura were nominated and won the travel award to attend the 8th Annual Southeast Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine (SCEGM) Conference in Birmingham, Alabama.

Activities: Dr. Jose Ventura remains the Champion for Change under a grant obtained by the American Academy of Family Physician's to implement Tobacco Cessation in primary care practice.

Medical Center of Central Georgia -Mercer University School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program
Macon, GA

The Medical Center of Central Georgia/Mercer University School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program has had an eventful year.

On June 23, 2011, the residency hosted the graduation of the fifth class of fellows from our Geriatric Fellowship program. This program now has been expanded to 4 fellows, and now offers the first Integrative Geriatrics fellowship in the nation.

The 2010-2011 academic year included the completion of the first year of our participation as an Early Adopter in the University of Arizona's Integrative Medicine in Residency program. As one of only 13 programs in the country offering this program in the pilot phase, we are proud to have 8 residents, 1 faculty, and one Integrative Geriatric Fellow complete this nationally recognized award-winning program, and are excited about contributing to the ongoing development of the IMR curriculum. We are also proud to have had our IMR graduation ceremony become the national home page photo this year!

With ACGME approval for a Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship, this program now has enrolled the first fellow, who will graduate in July 2011.

Our faculty grantsmanship has again been extraordinary this year. Dr. John Boltri continues work on a 3 year $3.1 million NIH grant for the Faith-based Diabetes Prevention Initiative. Dr. Paul Seale continues work on his 3 year, $1.87 million residency training NIH supplement to his 5 year $5.7 million Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration NIH grant to improve Brief Intervention and Early Treatment of alcohol abuse in our local hospital EC. Into his continuum year of an $871,000 residency training grant for development of the Geriatrics and Palliative fellowship, Dr. Richard Ackermann has expanded the geriatric training program, hiring 2 new faculty and a full-time social worker.

Implementation of the full library of the Challenger Program for Residencies, made possible by a grant from the GAFP Foundation and generous faculty contributions, has been a great success. Residents have embraced it as an invaluable tool for Board review as well as general resourcing. We matched 8 of 8 positions in the 2011 PGY 1 class with strong candidates, with most having strong ties to Georgia. Of our 8 2011 residency graduates, 4 are in private practice in Georgia and three are in fellowship programs in Georgia, planning to remain post-fellowship to Georgia. (One chose private practice in a place called Alabama!). Overall, 84% of our graduates are practicing in Georgia, with 70% of those serving in medically underserved areas.

Emory Family Medicine Residency Program
Atlanta, GA

The Emory Family Medicine Residency Program (EFMRP) completed its' sixteenth year of training residents. During the 2010-2011 academic year, 21 residents were in training. All residents completing the program went into private practice except one graduate who accepted a faculty position at the University of Iowa. Two residents completed the program off cycle, by one block, due to taking medical leaves during their residency training.

The Program staffs its family medicine service (FMS) at Emory University Hospital Midtown, previously Crawford Long Hospital. This is an excellent teaching service with the full academic training and clinical services support of Emory Health Care.

The Program opened its' new clinic in August 2010. This clinic is designed around PCMH concepts and incorporates state-of-the-art teaching resources for residents, students, and faculty. Physicians see patients with laptop computers, using a fully integrated EMR. The clinic has implemented e-prescribing and is fully electronic. The outpatient EMR freely communicates with all inpatient clinical care throughout the Emory system.

The Program is actively involved with the TransforMED partnership made available through GAFP resources.

The program's website is: http://fpm.emory.edu/Family/index.cfm

2010 Graduates

Andrew Baker	Indian Health Services, Arizona
Faiqa Mahmud	Private practice-Atlanta, Georgia
Monika Mohiuddin	Grady Neighborhood Health Centers, Atlanta, Georgia
Katina Robertson	Private practice-Atlanta, Georgia
Shalina Shaik	University of Iowa- faculty position, Iowa
Padmapryia Vasudevan	Private practice-South Carolina
Nga Vu	Private practice-Atlanta, Georgia

Family Medicine Center

All 21 residents and faculty practice in the Emory Family Medicine at Dunwoody clinic and provide inpatient care to include pediatrics at Emory University Hospital Midtown. The Dunwoody site offers full service family medicine care as well as multiple procedures.

The clinic web site is: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/family-medicine/index.html

Graduates

We currently have 120 graduates in practice. Approximately 75% are practicing in Georgia.

Future Directions

We anticipate future expansion of our Dunwoody site as we strive to provide care for a larger portion of our local population. We plan to have on site radiology in the near future, and we plan to have fast track or urgent care delivery capacity at our Dunwoody clinic. We continue to dedicate faculty resources to teaching medical students and being involved with the FMIG at Emory, in an attempt to interest students in our discipline. Emory has changed its' medical school curriculum to a new innovative curriculum which includes longitudinal small group learning. Three of our Division of Family Medicine faculty, continue to meet weekly with medical students in this small group learning environment. We expect continued implementation of our EMR to involve health maintenance during the next academic year.

Family Practice Residency at The Medical Center
Columbus, Georgia

The Family Practice Residency at The Medical Center has a long and distinguished history of providing physician Graduate Medical Education and patient care to the Columbus area. The three-year Family Practice residency program was established in 1972. Prior to that date, primary care physicians were trained as general practitioners with a two-year residency after medical school. Over the past sixty years The Medical Center has been instrumental in supplying general practitioners and family physicians who served the needs of Georgia and particularly the Columbus area. The Medical Education program also sponsors a Transitional Year internship in which medical student graduates receive a traditional internship on their way to specialty training such as anesthesia or radiology. These two programs have trained over four hundred physicians who are scattered around the state of Georgia and the southeastern United States. In our immediate area, there are seventy-seven physicians who practice within a thirty-mile radius of Columbus who can claim all or part of their training at The Medical Center.

An important part of our Medical Education mission is providing quality medical care to the underserved. Under the guidance of full-time attending physicians, our Family Practice and Transitional Year residents provide care in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology. The teaching services enable The Medical Center to serve as a patient resource and referral center for citizens of Georgia and east Alabama. Residents provide care at the Columbus Health Department clinics and routinely assist on Columbus Regional's outreach medical van. During the last year, our teaching program saw over 35,000 outpatient visits in the Family Practice Center, delivered hundreds of infants and cared for thousands of hospital admissions. With training in Advanced Cardiac and Trauma Life Support, residents help provide 24/7 care to patients referred to The Medical Center's Intensive Care Units and Trauma program.

The Family Medicine residency received a full three-year accreditation (maximum allowable on first inspection) from the American Osteopathic Association for the three-year osteopathic Family Medicine program. The Transitional Year program is also dually certified by the AOA and ACGME and is on a five-year accreditation cycle from the ACGME. Our Family Medicine Residency Program also received a full five-year accreditation cycle.

The residency program is now seven years into full implementation of an Electronic Health Record and has transitioned to Athena Clinicals as its second E.H.R. With the ability to have fifty simultaneous providers using computers in the exam rooms, it is the largest outpatient EHR implementation in the Columbus area. The Medical Center and its faculty are committed to keep our residency program at the cutting edge of providing quality and cost effective medicine. Our residency practice is seeking NCQA recognition for a Patient Centered Medical Home. Our teachers hold clinical medical school appointments at the Medical College of Georgia, Mercer University School of Medicine, Nova Southeastern University and Georgia-PCOM. While resident training is the primary mission of the Medical Education Department, there is extensive cooperation with Three Rivers AHEC in the training of physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other allied health providers.

The Department of Medical Education at The Medical Center will soon partner with St. Francis Hospital in Columbus to sponsor a core campus for third and fourth year medical students from Mercer University School of Medicine with the initial class of MS3's due in Columbus July 2012.

An important mission of our training program is to supply physicians to meet the needs of Georgia citizens.

The following physicians graduated in June 2011 and are listed with their practice location:

Maria Elena Bendana MD • Columbus, Georgia
Thomas Broughton MD • Birmingham, Alabama (OB fellowship)
Leonard Confident M.D • Columbus, Georgia
Khurram Khan MD • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Geriatrics fellowship)
Antont Labady MD • Columbus, Georgia
Beata Majewski MD • Columbus, Georgia
Natallia Matuzava MD • Atlanta, Georgia
Gabriel Nelson MD • Miami, Florida
Ike Nwaobi MD • Columbus, Georgia
Noyoze Urohoghide MD • Columbus, Georgia
Elina Skrubert MD • Ft. Myers, Florida

Atlanta Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program
Atlanta, GA

We have entered our eighteenth year as a program, and have graduated 15 classes, with 70% of our graduates remaining in Georgia to practice.

We had a successful match in 2011, filling all of our 6 positions, with much more interest from American medical students than in the recent past. We had 2200 applicants this past year with a third of our incoming interns coming from American schools. Five out of six went to excellent American universities for their undergrad degree.

We fully support the initiatives of the GAFP in sponsoring a new Academy task force on increasing medical student interest in Family Medicine and increasing those interested in Family Medicine to select a Georgia Family Medicine Residency Program for their training. Our Family Medical Center in Morrow, Georgia continues to do well and we are now seeing continuity OB patients at the Palmetto Health Clinic (FQHC) in Palmetto. One of our chief residents received the AAFP's first place national award for her research on metformin and vitamin B12 deficiency.

We hope that interest in Family Medicine amongst American medical students will continue and reverse the multi-year decline we have been experiencing. We must all continue to promote Family Medicine to all medical students we encounter, and show them the benefit of continuity of care, and comprehensive care, and how this will improve the health care provided to the citizens of Georgia and the nation.

Floyd Family Medicine Residency Program Update
Rome, GA

New Interns Begin – The intern class of 2011 at FMC has gotten off to a great start. We have a great team on new interns with a solid mix of D.O.s and M.D.s in our dually accredited program.

Community Activity – The 2011-12 athletic season has begun, and our residents have performed sports physicals for the area high schools, Shorter University, and Berry College. Football and wrestling seasons will begin soon with several opportunities for residents to provide team side-line coverage for both the high school and college level teams with our attending Dr. Melvin Thomas. Residents have also assisted with the Free Clinic at our community health department. Residents are working once a week on a rotating schedule in the Shorter University Health Clinic.

Education Additions - Our D.O. residents have begun a series of noon conferences to continue their training in manipulative medicine and to help train our M.D. residents in manipulative therapy techniques. The addition of our new D.O. director, Dr. John Mark Miller, has allowed our program to focus more on our D.O. residents and increased awareness among our M.D. residents regarding manipulative medicine.

Clinic Remodel - Our family medicine outpatient clinic renovation project has recently been completed. The million dollar renovation has improved our clinical aesthetics and efficiency and has improved our ability to perform procedures and manipulative medicine.

Research – Over the past year, our director, Dr. Frank Don Diego, has begun to place a high priority on resident research and evidence-based medicine. Dr. Don Diego worked diligently to secure funding and support for resident research. As of early 2011, Dr. Alan Dever joined the Floyd FMR as our Director of Research. Under the guidance of Dr. Dever, Floyd's research curriculum has been completely redesigned.

Medical College of Georgia- Family Medicine Residency Training Program
Augusta, GA

Since graduating its first class of residents in 2975, a total of 241 residents have completed their training in the Family Medicine Residency Program. 80.9 percent of these graduates chose to remain in the Southeast, and of these, 69.7 percent chose practice sites in Georgia. 71.4 percent of the 2011 graduates remained in Georgia.

Resident recruitment activities continued on both the local and national levels and those efforts resulted in a successful match with all right intern positions being filled. Seven filled in the National Resident Matching program match and one in the Osteopathic match.

Residents published eight publications this past year and four residents presented at regional/national conference. Each PGY-3 presented at least one scholarly activity over the year. Residents were required to provide a written bibliography, written presentation, copies of articles, and a literature review. PGY-2s provided a Critical Appraisal of Topic during community medicine rotation. In addition, all residents with their advisor presented at Journal Club.

Satilla Regional Medical Center Residency Program
Waycross, GA

Since 2000, Satilla Regional Medical Center Residency Program, rural track training program in Waycross, Georgia, has graduated a total of 18 residents and 61 percent have remained in Georgia and successfully filled their two intern slots in the March 2011 National Resident Matching program match.

November 15, 2011