Partnership Pulse, Late 2021

Partnership Pulse A Publication of the AU/UGA Medical Partnership

medicalpartnership.usg.edu 2021

Vaccinating Athens-Clarke County In this issue: Welcome Largest Class

Community Service & Outreach in ACC

Faculty, Alumni &Student Innovations

Medical Partnership Employees Honored

11th Annual Student Research Symposium

Alumni Highlight: Brett Magner

Student Spotlight: Maddy Wetterhall

Residency Program Graduation & Awards

Chin Receives Lifetime Award

Faculty, Resident, and Student Accolades

Partnership Pulse Augusta University and the University of Georgia have partnered to create a four-year medical education program to assist in alleviating the statewide shortage of physicians that threatens the health of Georgians. The AU/UGA Medical Partnership combines the significant instructional and research resources of UGA, the state’s flagship land-grant research university, with the expertise of the Medical College of Georgia, AU, Georgia’s only public medical school. A partnership of two prominent state institutions, bolstered by a supportive medical community and the energy of Athens, creates an unparalleled opportunity for the education of future physicians.

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The PARTNERSHIP PULSE — 2021 Issue AU UGA Medical Partnership

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From the Campus Dean After 2020 was nearly upended by the pandemic, the COVID-19 vaccine has brought a little light at the end of the tunnel and a small taste of normalcy back to our everyday lives.

PUBLISHER AU/UGA Medical Partnership EXECUTIVE EDITOR Tai Sherman EDITOR Lindsey Derrick DESIGNER Jennifer Stowe, MS CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Lindsey Derrick Damion Dixon Edwin Hammond Tristan Hancock Dorothy Kozlowski Ian McFarlane Jennifer Stowe Andy Tucker Selected articles are courtesy of UGA Today PHONE 706-713-2183 EMAIL mpmedia@uga.edu

Operations at the Medical Partnership have returned to normal with inperson classes despite the unrelenting pandemic. This was made possible with the distribution of the vaccine and with our campus following the science and CDC guidelines. Our Class of 2021 was able to enjoy an outdoor, socially distanced graduation celebration in May, and our M1s were welcomed with in-person orientation in July. Lastly, our admissions open houses returned with high numbers of prospective students ready and excited to tour our campus.

This fall marked our second year of class expansion. This is our first year of welcoming 60 medical students to our campus. The Class of 2025 is a talented group of students; you can read more about them in this issue of the Partnership Pulse. We are excited to see what they accomplish in their medical school career and beyond.

To accommodate our growing number of students, we have continued our recruitment of additional faculty and staff to the Medical Partnership. Over the past year, we have hired top educators, administrators, and staff to join our dedicated and passionate team here in Athens.

Lastly, our mobile clinic joined the fight against COVID-19 as they pivoted efforts to administering COVID-19 tests and vaccines once they were available. Through a partnership with the Northeast Health District, thousands of Athens-Clarke County residents were vaccinated. Hats off to all the faculty, staff, students, and area partners who worked with the clinic. We are so grateful for their tireless efforts to keep our community safe and healthy.

Once again, thank you for your continued support of the Medical Partnership. We wouldn’t be the campus we are today without your unwavering commitment.

Be well and stay safe.

WEBSITE medicalpartnership.usg.edu Articles may be reprinted with permission from the editor.

Copyright © 2021 by the AU/ UGA Medical Partnership. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without permission from the editor.

The AU/UGA Medical Partnership is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

Medical Partnership Leadership UGA PRESIDENT Jere Morehead, JD UGA PROVOST S. Jack Hu, PhD AU PRESIDENT Brooks Keel, PhD AU-MCG DEAN David Hess, MD AU/UGA MEDICAL PARTNERSHIP CAMPUS DEAN Michelle A. Nuss, MD 706-713-2183 snuss@uga.edu

Michelle A. Nuss, MD Campus Dean for the AU/UGA Medical Partnership

IN THIS ISSUE...

Letter from the Dean • 3 Welcome Largest Class • 4 Student Ambassadors & SGO Officers • 6 Class of 2025 Profile • 7 Match Day 2021 • 8 Class of 2021 Graduation • 10 New Hire for Student Affairs • 11 Community Service & Outreach • 12 St. Mary's Welcomes New Residents • 14 New IMRP Director: Lela Ward • 15 IMRP Graduation & Awards • 16 Student Spotlight: Maddy Wetterhall • 18 Chin Receives Lifetime Achievement Award • 20 COVER STORY • 22

Alumni Highlight: Brett Magner • 26 Alumni Highlight: Saumya Dave • 28 Alumni Highlight: Ebony Caldwell • 30 Why I Donate: Scholarships • 31 Biomedical Design Program • 32 Faculty Biotech Start-up • 34 Disinfection + Hydration for All • 36 Personalizing Health and the Well-Being • 38 Sim Center Escape Room Presented • 39 11th Annual Student Research Symposium • 40 A LOOK BACK: Photos from the Past Year •42 Faculty, Resident, and Student Accolades • 44 Medical Partnership Employees Honored • 46 New Faculty & Staff • 47 www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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CLASS OF 2025 AU/UGA Medical Partnership welcomes largest class The 60 new first-year medical students key to combating physician shortage

By Leigh Beeson The Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership first caught Eric Santana’s eye when he was in his freshman year.

“I was always imagining how enjoyable it would be to stay at UGA for a few extra years and also have the opportunity to continue my education in a place that’s public and has affordable rates,” the psychology grad said.

He officially began the next phase of that journey with orientation week (July 26-30) as part of the Medical Partnership’s Class of 2025. Santana is one of 60 new students, evenly split between women and men. This year’s class is the largest in the Medical Partnership’s history, part of a statewide effort to combat the nation’s physician shortage. The latest report from the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that the U.S. could see an estimated shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034.

In the state of Georgia, the shortage is particularly concerning, with just under 25,000 actively practicing physicians serving a population of almost 11 million residents. Multiple counties 4

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lack a single physician, according to the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce. But that’s a challenge the Medical Partnership is taking head on.

“As the state’s only public medical school, it is our responsibility and privilege to lead the way in addressing the state’s health care needs,” said David Hess, dean of Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia. “Expanding the class size at our partnership campus in Athens for two years in a row now, and at the main campus in Augusta as well this year, is one way we are working to ensure Georgia has not only enough doctors to face its growing shortage of physicians but a healthy economy as well.”

A growing partnership The partnership between Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia was established in 2009, and the state is already reaping the benefits of the arrangement. Of the 96 Medical Partnership students who have completed their residency training since the Medical Partnership’s founding, 38 are currently practicing in Georgia and 43 are doing their residency or fellowship in the state. Many of them are practicing in rural parts of the state.

Over the next three years, the Medical Partnership will continue to accept 60 new medical students in each class, with the goal of having 240 students on campus in fall 2024.

In preparation for this expansion, Russell Hall on the Health Sciences Campus underwent a $3 million renovation, including a new stateof-the-art simulation center and clinical skills lab, renovated large classroom spaces for active learning and additional small group rooms for student learning. The simulation center alone went from under 1,000 square feet to 3,300. The renovation also added some new office space for 17 new faculty and staff members.

underserved community members on the importance of preventive primary care including the COVID-19 vaccine. And students can also volunteer with the Mercy Health Center, a free health care clinic that provides care to the uninsured in several northeast Georgia counties including Clarke.

“One of my professors today said that she didn’t do the kind of things that we were doing—presenting and working with a case—until her third year of medical school,” Santana said. “We’re going to see patients a lot sooner because this program is so integrated in the community. It’s really refreshing, and I feel lucky to be here.”

“This is a major milestone for our campus, for our community and for the state of Georgia,” said Michelle Nuss, campus dean of the Medical Partnership and a professor of internal medicine and psychiatry. “We conducted nationwide searches to find the most qualified faculty to educate our students. This new group of talented clinical educators and basic scientists have come to our campus to help equip our students with the assets and tools they need to face the world of medicine head on and become the best doctors they can be.”

Larger class size, small group feel Even as class sizes and faculty increase, the Medical Partnership remains committed to the hands-on, patient-centered learning approach it’s known for.

Medical Partnership students help staff the Athens Free Mobile Clinic, which continues to play an important role in educating www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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NEW STUDENT AMBASSADORS & STUDENT GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP New Ambassadors Class of 2025 Joseph Cleland Shereen Farooq Kate Ferencsik Falon Hassett Tommy Johnston Manvi Manyam William McCormick Delany Metcalf Eric Odermatt Eric Santana Sachi Shastri Talia Sisroe Laura Rush Class of 2024 Pascal Acree Rob Husley Rajeev Subu Anna Turlej Ethan Welch 6

Student Government Organization Class of 2022 President: Taylor Tabb

Class of 2023 President: Zac Adams

Class of 2024 Pres: Tony Thawanyarat

Class of 2025 President: Sreesh Sridhar

Vice Pres: Dillon Patel

Vice Pres: Mary Thornsberry

Vice Pres: Laurel Parker

Vice Pres: Phillip Loan

Secretary: Bryanna Moppins

Secretary: Tanner Martin

Sec: Shadman Ibnamasud

Secretary: Shereen Farooq

Treasurer: Miya Oliver

Treasurer: Kyle Ulversoy

Treasurer: Pascal Acree

Treasurer: Debby Song

Community Service Chair: Rachel Gerald

Community Service Chair: Kyli Schmitt

Community Service Chair: Tucker Hickox

Social Chair: Lily Francis

Events Chair: Anna Schramski

Events Chair: Will McCormick

Curriculum Rep: Ana Bankey & Max Ribot

Curriculum Rep: Andrew Cheng & Katherine Street

Honor Council: Shant Ohanian & Tatiana Peduri

Honor Council: Manvi Manyam & David Filston

Alumni Development Rep: Mathew Albert & Yelissa Navarro

Alumni Development Rep: Harris Jamal& Kyra Foster

Social Chair: Joseph Ruiz Community Service Chair: Leah Topper Curriculum Chair: Brannon Hicks Honor Council: Sarah Bowman & Shan Xue

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Curriculum Chair: Alex Reese & Laura Pride Honor Council: Blaine Spivey & Sujay Sreenivasan

Class of 2025 PROFILE Undergraduate Schools 46 of 60 went to undergrad within Georgia (14 went out–of–state for undergrad).

18 University of Georgia 6 Emory University 4 Georgia Institute of Technology 3 Georgia State University 3 Kennesaw State 2 Georgia Southern 2 University of North Georgia 2 Covenant College 1 Augusta University 1 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 1 Georgia College and State 1 Georgia Gwinnett 1 Mercer 1 Valdosta State Other Universities: Birmingham Southern College Boston University Columbia University Duke NY University Northwestern Univ Rhodes College

Univ of California Santa Barbara Univ of Rochester Univ of Virginia Vanderbilt Wake Forest (2) Washington University

Undergraduate Majors Biology and biological sciences are the most popular. Other majors include: Psychology, Medicine, Health, and Society, Sociology, Chemistry, Genetics, Neuroscience, Physics, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Aircraft Systems, Global Public Health, Music, Environmental Health Sciences, Health & Exercise Science, Human Health, Cellular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Business Management, Philosophy, Microbiology, Economics, Health Promotion, Women’s Studies, Nursing, Applied Mathematics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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By Lindsey Derrick

S

tudents at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership participated in a ‘Virtual Match Day’ at noon on March 19 to receive their post-graduation assignments for residency programs.

This marks the second year that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the usual Match Day plans—in past years, students, faculty, and staff gathered in George Hall on the UGA Health Sciences Campus to celebrate with family and friends. The Class of 2021 opted to have their own private celebrations with family and friends instead of a socially distanced event on campus. This year, students also had to interview virtually with most residency programs because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic.

An annual event, Match Day takes place after students participate in interviews and visits to residency programs in Georgia and across the country. To determine the post-graduation assignments, the students ranked residency programs where they would like to complete their training, at the same time the residency programs ranked the student applicants. The lists are then submitted to the nonprofit organization National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) in Washington, D.C., which uses an algorithm that aligns the choices of the applicants with those of the residency programs.

Most students were matched via the NRMP, but some students participated in smaller match programs, including ophthalmology.

The final pairings were announced simultaneously across the U.S. at noon.

“Graduating Medical College of Georgia (MCG) students from the Augusta University/ University of Georgia Medical Partnership experienced their ‘rite of passage’ today when they learned where they will spend the next several years on their journey to becoming licensed physicians,” said Dr. John Francis, former campus associate dean for student and multicultural affairs.

“The match is representative of all the hard work these students have accomplished over the past four years. We are so proud and fortunate that these students are part of our campus and community.”

“This is the eighth successful match at the Augusta University/ University of Georgia Medical Partnership,” said campus dean, Dr. Michelle Nuss. “The accomplishments of these 38 MCG students have landed them at top-tier residency programs across the nation.

The students will be going to 18 different states plus Washington D.C. in 17 different specialties, with 65 percent staying in the southeastern United States and 46 percent joining primary care programs. Thank you to the faculty, administrators, staff and physician mentors in our community who have devoted their time and efforts to educating our future physicians.”

Some of the most popular specialties this year included Emergency Medicine (5), Internal Medicine (5), Family Medicine (4) and Anesthesia (4), with 32 percent of all matched students doing an internship or residency program in Georgia.

AU/UGA Medical Partnership participants in Match Day 2021 received the following residency appointments. They are listed by name, residency institution and specialty:

CLASS OF 2021 RESIDENCY APPOINTMENTS Last Name

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First Name

Institution Name

Specialty

State

Agazie

Irenna

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital

Family Medicine

GA

Abdulhakim

Abdilatif

Northside Hospital Gwinnett

Transitional Year

GA

Alimohamadi

Sahar

UPMC Medical Education

Vascular Surgery

PA

Askins

Brett

Univ. North Carolina Hospitals

Internal Medicine

NC

Baer

Lindsey

PGY1 Piedmont Athens Regional PGY2 Emory Univ SOM

Transitional Year Phys Medicine & Rehab

GA GA

Bao

Wendi

Brown Univ/Rhode Island Hospital

Pediatrics

RI

Bodunrin

Peter

PGY1 Emory University SOM PGY2 Emory University SOM

Transitional Year Ophthalmology

GA GA

Brown

Wesley

Univ. Alabama Med Ctr-Birmingham

Emergency Medicine

AL

Buckner

Shelby

Stony Brook Teach Hospitals

Pediatrics

NY

The PARTNERSHIP PULSE — 2021 Issue

CLASS OF 2021 RESIDENCY APPOINTMENTS Last Name

First Name

Institution Name

Specialty

State

Butler

William

PGY1 Piedmont Athens Regional PGY2 Medical University of South Carolina

Transitional Year Radiology-Diagnostic

GA SC

Cho

James

Massachusetts Gen Hosp/Harvard

Anesthesiology/PG 1-4

MA

Ediale

Constance

PGY1 Northside Hospital Gwinnett PGY2 Howard University Hosp

Transitional Year Dermatology

GA DC

Flanigan

Kendall

PGY1 Univ. North Carolina Hospitals PGY2 Univ. North Carolina Hospitals

Medicine-Preliminary Dermatology

NC NC

Garcia

Kelsey

Madigan Army Medical Center

Obstetrics-Gynecology

WA

Gaton

Jordi

Texas A&M-Bryan/College Station

Family Medicine

TX

Ghassemlou

Shouron

Richmond Univ Med Ctr

Obstetrics-Gynecology

NY

Harris

Nathan

Baylor Univ Med Ctr-Dallas

Emergency Medicine

TX

Hua

Xiaodong

Medical College of Georgia

Anesthesiology

GA

Huynh

Tony

Univ. Arizona COM-Phoenix

Orthopedic Surgery

AZ

Jay

Riley

LSU SOM-New Orleans

Pediatrics

LA

Johnson

Terrance

Medical College of Georgia

Family Medicine

GA

Lukianov

Cyril

Medical University of South Carolina

Neurology

SC

Mi

Jiaqi

WellStar Kennestone Reg Med Ctr

Internal Medicine

GA

Morris

Emily

Medical College of Wisconsin Affil Hosps

Neurological Surgery

WI

Neppl

Jack

Medical College of Georgia

Anesthesiology

GA

On

Jungmin

Northside Hospital Gwinnett

Transitional Year

GA

Orakzai

Sherayar

Rush University Med Ctr

Interventional Radiology

IL

Parker

John

Coliseum Med Ctrs

Emergency Medicine

GA

Peragine

Brian

MedStar Washington Hosp Ctr/Georgetown-WHC

Emergency Medicine

DC

Shim

Deborah

Barnes-Jewish Hosp

Obstetrics-Gynecology

MO

Smudde

Sarah

University Hosps-Jackson MS

Emergency Medicine

MS

Stephens

Julia

U North Carolina Hospitals

Psychiatry

NC

Strickland

Emily

Madigan Army Medical Center

Internal Medicine

WA

Thaker

Devaunsh

PG1 Medical University of South Carolina PG2 NYU Grossman School of Medicine

General Surgery- Preliminary Anesthesiology

SC NY

Walter

Nathaniel

U Tennessee COM-Chattanooga

General Surgery

TN

Williams

Sarah

U Tennessee COM-Chattanooga

General Surgery- Preliminary

TN

Woubshet

Eden

Emory Univ SOM

Family Medicine

GA

Zeineddine

Lauran

U Florida COM-Shands Hosp

Internal Medicine

FL

Zezetko

Alisa

Vidant Med Ctr/East Carolina Univ

Psychiatry

NC

CLASS OF 2020 RESIDENCY APPOINTMENTS Dattilo

Zachary

Univ. Texas Southwestern Med Sch

Anesthesiology

TX

Ibrahim

Naser

Tulane Univ SOM

Neurological Surgery

LA

Grace

Harrison

Univ. of New Mexico SOM

Child Neurology

NM

CLASS OF 2018 RESIDENCY APPOINTMENT Durgin

Wesley

Hamilton Med Ctr

Internal Medicine

GA

CLASS OF 2017 RESIDENCY APPOINTMENT Feibelman

Palmer

Brown Univ/Rhode Island Hosp

Ophthalmology

RI

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Class of 2021 Graduation The Class of 2021 celebrated their achievements at the Hooding and Community Celebration in front of Winnie Davis Hall on the Health Sciences Campus on Saturday, May 15, 2021.

This is the eighth year of the Community Celebration, but this marks the first year a Hooding Ceremony has taken place at the Athens campus. Forty students, along with their friends and family, gathered for this momentous occasion.

The ceremony began with a processional led by Campus Dean Michelle Nuss along with the Medical Partnership faculty. Nuss provided the welcoming remarks to the attendees and served as the host of the event.

Medical Partnership Campus associate dean for medical education, Dr. Scott Richardson, provided the keynote address at the ceremony. He was selected by the Class of 2021 for this honor and provided sound advice for the graduates.

Members from the class were then hooded by Dr. Suzanne Lester

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and Dr. Molly Bond. Some students were hooded by family members.

Former campus associate dean for student & multicultural affairs Dr. John Francis presented four awards during the ceremony—Dr. Ehi Ediale and Dr. Sherayar Orakzai received the Amarachi Anukam Community Service Award, Dr. Ediale also received Physicians’ Physician, Dr. Ellen House was named Educator of the Year, and Dr. Lester received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award for faculty and Dr. Orakzai received the award for the students.

The ceremony concluded with remarks from class president, Dr. Quinn Peragine and the presentation of the class gift from Dr. Kelsey Garcia.

Following graduation, the Medical College of Georgia students attending the Medical Partnership campus will be going to 18 different states plus Washington D.C. in 17 different specialties.

Sixty-five percent will stay in the southeastern United States, and forty-six percent will attend primary care residencies.

McClowry named Campus Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Robert McClowry, MD, AAHIVS, began his role of campus assistant dean for student affairs, diversity, and inclusion at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership on Monday, September 27.

He is now serving as the interim campus associate dean for student affairs, diversity & inclusion after the departure of Dr. John Francis who accepted a role at Yale University.

McClowry joined the Medical Partnership from the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in Rochester, Michigan where he served as the assistantdean for diversity and inclusion and assistant dean for career advisor programming and student advisement.

“Dr. McClowry is passionate about supporting students and on all issues regarding diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Campus Dean Dr. Michelle Nuss, “He will bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to our campus. He is an outstanding communicator and has an outgoing personality that is infectious to all.”

McClowry will bring years of experience in diversity and inclusion to this role at the Partnership. He has served as a physician at the Mazzoni Center Family and Community Medicine- LGBTQ+ Health and Well-Being, facilitated faculty training on racism and bias, taught courses on competent primary care for the LGBTQ+ community, and introduced a diversity and inclusion course to M1 orientation.

He has taught medical students and residents in family medicine throughout his career and will also hold the title of associate professor of family medicine at the Medical Partnership.

Former campus associate dean for student and multicultural affairs Dr. John Francis said McClowry was the front runner after a nationwide search to fill the role.

“He is highly intelligent, friendly, likable and well qualified to serve as assistant dean for student affairs, diversity and inclusion,” said Francis. “His warm personality and wealth of knowledge as a former chief resident who has most recently served as both an assistant dean for career advisor programing /student advisement and as an assistant dean for diversity and Inclusion have equipped him to be a competent and supportive resource for our students on the AU/UGA Medical Partnership campus. We are blessed to have him join our faculty!”

McClowry earned a BS in physiology from Michigan State UniversityLyman Briggs College and Honors College before earning his MD from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He then went on to complete his residency in family and mommunity medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he also served as chief resident.

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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A Plan for Change through

Community Service & Outreach

By Scarlett Kim, Rajashri Manjunath, Anna Turlej (Medical Partnership students) and Tai Sherman After an eye-opening Black Physicians Panel held on Zoom last spring, several medical students from the Class of 2024 began thinking about how we could encourage diversity in medical education. Less than 15% of American doctors come from underserved backgrounds and communities. Getting into medical school can be a long and difficult process, especially for individuals who lack access to medical mentors and networks.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) defines underrepresentation in medicine (URM) as, "racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population." This lens currently includes students who identify as African Americans and/or Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), Pacific Islander, and mainland Puerto Rican. The definition also includes students who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and in Georgia, those from rural communities. We must also recognize students of all abilities/disabilities, as well as gender and sexual orientation.

As part of our curriculum, we are learning about the importance of diversity in medicine for making progress in health disparities.

Recognizing an opportunity for Medical Partnership students to become better engaged with our community, including URM youth, we formed the Community Outreach and Service Interest Group (COSIG).

We started with just a vision of building up a generation of Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership students and alumni who were invested in the wellbeing of their community and who exemplified leadership at the crossroads of medicine and service.

Over the past year, as we learned more about the city and citizens of Athens, our goal of integrating ourselves as a resource for the larger community gradually came into focus. After listening to the needs of community organizations, we decided the best way to implement a sustainable program was to partner with 12

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existing organizations that were already serving youth from URM populations. Our goal was and remains to build intentional, long-term relationships between the Medical Partnership and community organizations.

Some of you may be thinking, “great, another group of medical students who want to change the world while adding a few lines to their resumes.” While we can’t object to that opinion since the altruistic spirit is inherent to the medical field, our members are strong believers that meaningful change cannot be achieved by service alone but, rather, only with a collective call for reflection and reform.

In finding our identity as a group, we have learned that good intentions don’t always translate into great utility for communities. Taking a step back and understanding the community - all of its strengths, its history, and its needs - is what we put at the forefront of everything we do. We first try to acknowledge and support the individuals and organizations that have already established the groundwork for a healthier Athens.

We are lucky to have wonderful faculty and community members who have helped guide our approach to what we do at COSIG. For example, COSIG hosted its first ATHENTICITY Community Outreach Training led by local community leader, Dr. Tawana Mattox, founder of Educational Access Unlimited, an organization dedicated to educating groups about equity and resilience. She not only introduced us to the specific challenges faced by Athens locals historically and today, but she also helped us navigate our own biases and motivations in order to best support and amplify the voices of the populations we seek to serve.

COSIG launched the Athens Community Outreach Partners (ACORPS) program in the fall of 2021 after recruiting an inaugural cohort of 22 Medical Partnership students to be “deployed” to our partner organizations: ULead, YMCA Athens, Clarke County School District Career Academy, and Double Helix Steam School.

We met with leaders at each site to coordinate how we could best serve their specific group of students.

The purpose of ACORPS is to build relationships with URM youth by utilizing our skills and knowledge as future physicians. Through meaningful mentor-mentee relationships, we hope to encourage these students to explore the field of medicine. As an added benefit, we are cultivating the art of mentorship among Medical Partnership students.

Planned activities for this year include medical student panels, interactive medical simulation sessions, case studies, 1:1 mentoring for high school students, and much more.

COSIG also brings service and outreach events to the entire Medical Partnership campus. We’ve supported the Backpack Project - a local organization that delivers essential supplies to the homeless population - by fundraising $300 through a Fall Festival and hosting 3 campus-wide backpack packing events. Each backpack we assembled contained over 40 items including non-perishable food items, toiletries, clothes, face masks, hand sanitizer, and winter blankets. In October, we also participated in the Athens YMCA Annual Trunk or Treat Event. Volunteers dressed up in their scrubs and white coats handed out candy to the children as well as vaccine information to parents.

Lastly, we have partnered with the Young Physicians Initiative (YPI), a program designed to address disparity in the medical field. YPI provides interactive guidance to URM middle school, high school, and college students. We hope to inspire them to pursue careers in medicine by being present in their communities. This program is being implemented at the Clarke County School District Career Academy. A group of Medical Partnership students meets on a regular basis with high-schoolers in the Health Careers class two to three times a semester. Each session is 45-60 minutes and focuses on an interactive topic about medical career experience and preparation. The sessions include class discussions, speakers, volunteer experiences and learning about advances in medicine.

Whether through our school-wide service events, ACORPS, or YPI, our efforts aim to reduce disparities in medicine, and to be

a resource for a healthier Athens. Athens is our home and continues to support us during our time here as students. As COSIG, ACORPS, and YPI continue to grow and mature, we hope to serve our community as much as it has nurtured us. As we lay the foundation for a lasting relationship between our school and the Athens community, we want to thank all of our COSIG family, our supportive faculty, our tireless partners, and most importantly, the young people that we are so fortunate to get to share our love of medicine with. www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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St. Mary's Welcomes New Residents

St. Mary's Health Care System and the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership are welcomed 12 new physician residents to the Internal Medicine Residency Program (IMRP) this summer.

The new residents began practicing at St. Mary's on July 1 under the supervision of advanced resident physicians and physician faculty from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and area communitybased teaching faculty.

Residents are medical school graduates who are working toward full licensure as independent physicians. The IMRP is a three-year program with increasing levels of independence. It's the final stage in their internal medicine education. At the end of the three-year program, they will take their licensure exam (“Boards”) and then either go into practice or continue into training for a specialty.

The IMRP is accredited to host up to 37 residents. They provide supervised inpatient care at St. Mary's Hospital on Baxter Street and outpatient care at Community Internal Medicine of Athens on Oglethorpe Avenue.

In addition, third year residents spend two months in a rural healthcare setting, providing inpatient care at St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital in Greensboro.

"Our Internal Medicine Residency Program offers a wide range of experiences,” said Lela Ward, MD, program director. “From critical care and inpatient units to a rural outpatient clinic, our residents have a diverse range of practice opportunities that will prepare them well as they further their careers."

The IMRP Class of 2024 started on July 1. They and their medical college are: Laasya Cherukuri, MD, medical degree from Rangaraya Medical College Yoonhee Choi, MD, medical degree from Eulji University College of Medicine Vinh Dong, MD, medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine Rahim Fazal, MD, medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine Lauren Holland, DO, medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Alexandria Hoy, MD, medical degree from University of Medicine and Health Sciences Kevin Moriles, DO, medical degree from Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine Caroline Musa MD, medical degree from Washington University of Health and Sciences

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Juan Vigo, MD, medical degree from University of Medicine and Health Sciences Manal Zafar, medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine They are joined by Shelby Sweat, DO, a preliminary year resident who will practice for a year with the IMRP before continuing her training in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Dr. Sweat earned her medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

This year's chief residents are Dr. Jamila Pham and Dr. Joshuam Ruiz Vega, recent graduates of the residency program who will be staying with the IMRP for an additional year. The chief residents act as liaisons between faculty members and residents, serve as mentors, and help design and create educational activities, in addition to providing patient care.

"We are thrilled to have this new group of physicians join our residency program. Their backgrounds, achievements, and connections to Georgia will be an asset to our program and community for years to come," said Dr. Ward.

Program leaders also are celebrating the success of the outgoing Class of 2021. Of the 10 graduating residents and recently departed former chief resident, four will remain in Georgia to practice or will continue their medical education at Emory University. Of those four, two will stay in the Athens area: Dr. Pham and Dr. Ruiz Vega as chief residents at St. Mary's Hospital. The other two will be practicing as hospitalists in Rome and Moultrie, Georgia.

“This is tremendous that four of our residents will be staying in Georgia as we continue to combat the physician shortage,” said Michelle Nuss, MD, campus dean and designated institutional official of the Medical Partnership.

The IMRP is a joint effort by the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership and St. Mary’s, the program's Major Participating Site.

The program's goal is to address the physician shortage in Georgia.

“Being the site of the first medical residency program in Northeast Georgia continues to be a tremendous honor for St. Mary’s,” said Jason Smith, MD, St. Mary's chief medical officer. “Residents bring new energy and enthusiasm into our clinical areas. At the same time, working with these new physicians is exciting for our medical staff. We welcome our sixth class of residents and are looking forward to working side-by-side with them over the next three years to further raise the bar for clinical excellence at St. Mary’s and across Northeast Georgia.”

Ward named Program Director for Internal Medicine Residency Program Dr. Lela Ward took on the role as program director for the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership’s Internal Medicine Program at St. Mary’s Hospital, effective July 15, 2021.

together to spark even greater levels of learning and understanding.”

Ward, MD, FACP, a board-certified internist, hospitalist, and associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, has been part of the Internal Medicine Program since its inception in 2015, serving as one of its core faculty members.

During Ward’s time with the Internal Medicine Residency Program, she has served on the Clinical Competency Committee and the Program Evaluation Committee since 2015. She has also been extensively involved in committee work at St. Mary’s Hospital, serving on the credentials committee, ethics committee and as secretary of the Medical Executive Committee.

Ward took over the role after the departure of Dr. Achilia Morrow. Morrow was with the program for four years—she first served as associate program director in 2016 before moving to program director in August of 2017. Dr. Andy Albritton served as interim since March 2021 after Morrow departed the position for Baylor University.

Ward also founded the Mentoring Program for Internal Medicine residents. She has mentored residents on poster sessions for the American College of Physicians (ACP) for the annual Georgia ACP Chapter meetings and also served as a judge for the resident poster sessions at the same meetings. She was moved to Fellow status in the ACP in November 2020.

“I want to thank Dr. Achilia Morrow for her service to the Internal Medicine Program,” said Medical Partnership Campus Dean Dr. Michelle Nuss. “She led the program through the challenges of the pandemic and advanced the program during her tenure. I’d also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Albritton for his service as the interim program director and chair of the search committee.”

“Lela has been excited to take on the reigns as the program director,” said Nuss. “She is committed to excellence and is a passionate medical educator. I’m confident that Dr. Ward will provide the leadership and has the skills to take the program to the next level.”

“Given that Dr. Ward’s service with the hospitalist service at St. Mary’s has been exceptional, we anticipate that the partnership between St. Mary’s and the AU/UGA Medical Partnership will grow even stronger,” said Dr. Jason Smith, St. Mary’s chief medical officer. “With her outstanding clinical background and history of forming close cross-service relationships, we are confident that our residents and attending colleagues will come

Ward grew up in Madison, Georgia, and attended Morgan County High School before attending the University of Georgia where she earned a BS in genetics. She then attended the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta for her MD degree before completing her internal medicine residency at Greenville Hospital System in Greenville, SC, where she also served as chief resident. She worked at Athens Hospital Services since 2014, and she currently resides in Athens with her husband Kyle and daughter Cora.

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Internal Medicine Residency Program

GRADUATION & AWARDS

By Lindsey Derrick

Dr. Joshuam Ruiz Vega will be co-chief residents.

On Friday, June 11, the fourth class of the Augusta University/ University of Georgia Medical Partnership Internal Medicine Residency Program in partnership with St. Mary’s Health Care System celebrated their graduation at the Georgia Club outside of Athens.

Pham praised the leadership from those at the Medical Partnership and St. Mary’s.

The night began with a dinner buffet followed by opening remarks from Medical Partnership campus dean, Dr. Michelle Nuss.

Nuss spoke about how proud she was of the class for making it through the tough time of COVID-19.

“All I want to say is how proud I am of you all,” said interim program director Dr. Andy Albritton. “I wish you all the best, and thank you for the last three years.”

“We are so proud of this class,” said Nuss. “We’ve had some dark days in the last year. The stories that I’ve heard, the stress, the sadness, the grief, the deaths that you’ve all delt with is something you will hopefully never have again in your life. But you’ve learned a lot. You’ve come through it, and you’re resilient, you’re stronger, and you will take these skills with you wherever you go. Congratulations to our 10 graduates. You are all amazing.”

The Class of 2021

Nuss was followed by Montez Carter, St. Mary's president and CEO.

Somtochukwu Nwokoye – McLeod Medical Center – Florence, SC

“Day in and day out, our entire team was impressed by the skill and dedication and determination you demonstrated this past year,” said Carter. “We are impressed by your compassion and your empathy and your attitudes you demonstrated to our patients.

All this was more than we all bargained for, but in the heat of the pandemic, you made a difference. You saved lives. Decades from now when you look back over your career, I hope that you will be proud and humbled about what you were able to accomplish with us at St. Mary’s.”

Cari Padron – McLeod Health Seacoast – Little River, SC

Residents are graduates of medical school who are working toward full licensure as independent physicians. The Internal Medicine Residency Program is a three-year program with increasing levels of independence. It's the final stage in their internal medicine education. At the end of the three-year program, they will sit for their Boards and then either go into practice or continue into training for a specialty.

The Internal Medicine Residency Program is accredited to host up to 37 residents. They provide supervised inpatient care at St. Mary's Hospital on Baxter Street and outpatient care at Community Internal Medicine of Athens on Oglethorpe Avenue. In addition, third year residents spend two months in a rural healthcare setting, providing inpatient care at St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital in Greensboro.

Nine of the 10 residents from the Class of 2021 are staying in the southeast, and two will remain at St. Mary’s: Dr. Jamila Pham and 16

“Somehow, in three short years, you have taken scared, timid interns and turned them into competent physicians who are ready to take on the world. I hope we have made you guys proud,” she said.

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Yvonne Akabogu – Floyd Medical Center – Rome, GA Zachary Hart – North Alabama Medical Center – Florence, AL Lara Khamo – Kaiser Permanente – California Bay Area Shabtab Khan – Emory University, Nephrology Fellowship Chau Nguyen – hospitalist

Jamila Pham – Chief Resident Joshuam Ruiz Vega – Chief Resident Vandana Yanamadala - McLeod Medical Center – Florence, SC

Winners from the End of the Year Awards Ceremony The following were awards were determined by voting by their colleagues and peers.

Subspecialty Attending of the Year: Alan Morgan, MD Cardiology Attending of the Year: Hiren Patel, MD Hospitalist of the Year: Amir Shirazi, MD Intensivist of the Year: Nick Fox, MD Faculty of the Year: Marla Tschepikow, MD Rotation of the Year: ICU Intern of the Year: Taylor Attar, DO Resident of the Year: Kajal Joshi, MD Senior Resident of the Year: Caridad Padron, MD Outstanding Professionalism & Ethics: Maureen Onweni, MD St. Mary’s Nursing Choice Award: Caridad Padron, MD

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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ON THE FRONTLINES:

Life as a New York City EMT During COVID-19

By Lindsey Derrick

W

hen the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading across the country, it brought along numerous changes within the world of medical education.

Beyond having much of their regular learning moved online, medical students of all ages found themselves eventually on the frontlines fighting the virus—from administering vaccines and tests to working in PPE during their rotations, they got a hands-on, unprecedented learning experience.

For one second-year student at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, facing the pandemic head-on was a reality before she even entered medical school.

Prior to March of 2020, Maddy Wetterhall was working as an EMT running 911 calls in Dekalb County.

When the pandemic hit, the Office of Emergency Management asked for volunteers who were able to be deployed with FEMA. Wetterhall signed up and learned she would be deployed to New York City.

“We had no idea what to expect,” said Wetterhall. “We didn’t know if we would have to fly or drive up, if we would be living out of our ambulances, and didn’t know what our role would look like up there.

We knew we were going into the hot zone of an incredibly contagious virus. We knew it was dangerous and something that we could possibly die from, but as emergency medical care providers, that is what we do.

We overlook that fear and go into emergency situations and try to help in any way that we possibly can.”

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When Wetterhall got to NYC, everyone was informed that the city’s 911 system was overwhelmed—911 call volume was double the norm, which resulted in wait times up to eight hours or more.

All EMTs were partnered off and separated into different tasks forces to run 911 calls in the boroughs.

“The types of calls we ran varied any given day,” said Wetterhall. “We had many patients with COVID-19 symptoms, but the regular 911 calls such as cardiac arrests, traumas, chest pain, strokes, overdoses, didn’t stop because of the pandemic.”

On a normal day, ninety percent of calls to EMS are noncritical while 10 percent are critical, but Wetterhall said that all changed while she was in NYC. “In the state of emergency that New York was in, that statistic was flipped, and we could definitely feel that on the ground,” she said.

“Many of the people who called 911 were scared to go to the hospital.

Some waited too long to call just out of fear that they would have to go.”

Wetterhall’s first weeks in the city were like nothing she had ever seen.

“During my first few weeks there, hospitals were overcrowded and overwhelmed,” she said. “Critical patients who were intubated were in hall beds because there just wasn’t space. Refrigerator trucks were lined up outside and filling up within a few hours. In one hospital in Queens, I felt like I was like playing Tetris with stretchers of critically ill individuals, just trying to get to my patient. It truly was like a war scene.”

Even incoming calls that would normally be a simple fix were made more difficult due to the pandemic and made Wetterhall and her fellow EMTs think outside the box.

“My partner and I responded to an elderly man who was in dire need of dialysis but couldn’t get to his dialysis clinic because he was bedridden and the service that normally transported him was overwhelmed,” she said. “My partner and I knew that taking him to the hospital could mean a death sentence for him, but not doing anything could, too. As a solution, we ended up carrying him down five flights of stairs and putting him in a taxi with his daughter so he could get the help he needed while also reducing his risk of exposure.”

Wetterhall spent 50 days in March – May 2020 in NYC, and while she didn’t see much downtime, the end results were worth all the hours.

“We averaged 16-18 hour days, and in my 50 days there, I only had two days off,” she said. “By the end of my 50 days, hospitals started looking much better, and call volume was much closer to normal levels. It was really fulfilling to see the progress and know that our efforts had helped.”

With her feet back on the ground in Georgia, Wetterhall said her first year of medical school went well.

“I got my acceptance letter to the Medical College of Georgia just 10 days before orientation, and it’s been a whirlwind ever since. I definitely couldn’t have made it through this first year without the support of my family, friends, and the incredible faculty here. It’s been especially rewarding to learn the pathophysiology behind a lot of the conditions I ran into on the streets, as well as learning what happens next,” she said.

Looking back on her time in NYC, Wetterhall undoubtedly thinks that phase in her life helped her to prepare for medical school.

“I was challenged every day to think on my own,” she said. “I learned to trust my instincts and my training, and I became more confident. In addition to getting firsthand clinical exposure to a plethora of different conditions, the entire experience also confirmed to me that I am in the right field and that I want to continue to help people in their time of need. When I’m starting to feel burn-out from the constant studying, reminding myself about that helps me keep the big picture in mind.”

After getting a taste of excitement and the thrill of working as an EMT, Wetterhall said emergency medicine is on her list of specialties for the future, but she is excited to see what else may pique her interest.

“One of the things I most enjoyed about being an EMT is you get to know your patients in such a personal way. We are invited into their homes and meet their families, or we see firsthand the struggles they face if they are homeless,” she said. “It is such an honor and privilege to take part in some of the most intimate moments in my patients and their families’ lives. It brings me joy to know that I have helped, if even only a little, to make their day a little brighter.”

Even after fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines, Wetterhall has still found the opportunity to take part in the fight against the virus as a student at the Medical Partnership.

“The most rewarding part has been getting the opportunity to administer COVID vaccines,” she said. “It is so rewarding to be able to give people a little bit of hope and a reminder that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Former UHC Director Wins National Award: Dr. Jean Chin’s long career is recognized with lifetime achievement honor

By Lindsey Derrick

W

hen Jean Chin, MD, found her way to the University of Georgia’s health center in 1988, she didn’t expect to stay in Athens long.

“College health was a career I entered by accident,” said Chin. “I had only planned to stay at the University Health Center for three years while my husband was working on his PhD.” More than thirty years later, Chin continues to work with students at UGA. Even though she retired as executive director of the University Health Center in 2018, Chin is still giving back to medical education in her current role of associate professor of medicine at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership.

Chin received her BS in chemistry from UGA in 1978 and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

She then earned her MBA from Kennesaw State, her MD from Tufts University School of Medicine, and completed her residency at Westchester County Medical Center, New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York.

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She began as a medical staff member at the University Health Center. From 1992-2004, she served as medical director before being named executive director in 2005—a title she held until her retirement before earning her current role of executive director emeritus. The health center saw many changes and improvements during Chin’s tenure.

The center moved from its former location in Gilbert Hall on Lumpkin Street to its current building on east campus in 1997. Chin oversaw numerous renovations and additions to the center beginning in 2008 before it transformed into the current 111,000-square-foot, state-ofthe-art facility with 13 clinics.

The renovations added many crucial aspects to keep the health center up to date to better serve patients. A vision clinic was added, and several departments were expanded, including the physical therapy department, the pharmacy, and counseling and therapy services. In addition , a teaching kitchen was added to teach students how to prepare healthy foods.

The expansions to the building also brought additional space for the Fontaine Center— a center for alcohol and other substance misuse prevention. The Fontaine Center also houses the relationship and sexual violence prevention office including 24-hour on-call advocacy services.

“There were renovations along the way, but each major construction project was done to improve services, increase accessibility, improve clinician and staff efficiency, expand service offerings, and yes, to generate revenue,” said Chin. “Over time, the university grew, student and parent expectations changed, the delivery of care evolved, and the revenue model changed. The University Health Center also evolved to remain viable, relevant, and student centric.”

While she was at the helm, Chin also established both the Student Health Advisory Committee, an organization to help provide a student voice in health center operations and promote an open channel of communication between the UHC staff and the student bod, and the Healthy Dawg Ambassadors, a group of students who are chosen to officially promote the mission and vision of the University Health. Chin said working with the Student Health Advisory Committee was one of the most rewarding experiences during her time at UGA. “These talented, committed, enthusiastic, and exceptional students provide the student voice for health matters,” said Chin. “I mentored

many of them, and in return was so proud when they were admitted to graduate school, medical school, law school, dental school, PA programs, and more.”

Under Chin’s leadership, the health center also became one of 17 college health centers to be accredited by The Joint Commission.

Accreditation is based on patient centered care, access and care coordination.

“Hands down, the most rewarding thing about my career has been getting to work with all the people who have crossed my path in the last 30 plus years,” said Chin. “Working at the University Health Center was the best job I could have ever hoped for, and the people who work there are the cream of the crop.

We grew to almost 300 staff members, and it got increasingly difficult to get to know everyone well as my responsibilities expanded.

However, the Health Center staff were like my own family. We celebrated birthdays, weddings, graduations, births and mourned deaths together. We worked hard, but we had so much fun, too.”

Even when she neared the end of her career at UGA, Chin added more hours to her busy schedule and began teaching one afternoon per week at the Medical Partnership in 2015.

Shant Ohanian, a second-year at the Medical Partnership, said Chin goes above and beyond to help her students.

“Dr. Chin is probably one of the most supportive and kind preceptors a student could have,” said Ohanian. “She has challenged us and made us think critically about our history and physical exam skills, and she has spent considerable time outside class to guide and mentor us to be the best clinicians we can be. I and other students have enjoyed having Dr. Chin for clinical skills because she makes us feel comfortable and capable in the exam room and with patients. She comes in prepared with a specific list of goals for her students and doesn’t leave until she feels we are adequately prepared. She will reach out after class and before exams to make sure we are feeling well and rested, and she is always prepared to provide that extra help or guidance when needed.”

Chin’s commitment to the medical field and willingness to go the extra mile to help others has been celebrated throughout her career. Her awards and achievements include: American College of Physicians Georgia Chapter Community Based Teaching Award (2018), UGA Faculty Service Award (2018), Vice President’s Award, Distinguished Leadership in Student Affairs (2017), Edward Hitchcock

Award for Outstanding Contributions in College Health (2016), Charles F. Bohmann Award for Dedication and Contributions to College Health (2015), and Governor’s Commendation for Excellence in Customer Service (2010).

Her most recent award came in May of 2021 when she was named the recipient of the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020-2021.

The award recognizes individuals who have provided outstanding service to ACHA and whose professional lives have been dedicated to improving the health of college students.

“I’ve received several awards and honors over the years, but this one is special, particularly as I have seen the list of past recipients, the giants of college health, most of them I know and have looked up to for years,” said Chin. “I'm a mixed bag of emotions: shocked, grateful, humbled and happy. I only wish my parents were still alive to share this with them.”

“Dr. Chin has been a tremendous leader and advocate for student health at UGA and across the country,” said Medical Partnership Campus Dean Dr. Michelle Nuss. “She is so deserving of this national award.”

“I always looked forward to having Dr. Chin for clinical skills,” said Ohanian. “She is a coach as well as a teacher, and she draws on her experience dealing with all kinds of patients and working in many different settings to hone our clinical skills. I am envious of her future students.”

Chin admits that she has failed at one thing— retirement.

Once Chin retired from UGA, she added two more half days at the Medical Partnership to teaching her schedule.

“After her retirement from the University Health Center, Dr. Chin wanted to continue in a role that could shape future physicians,” said Nuss. “For the past several years, she has shared her expertise and talents with the students at the Medical Partnership through our clinical skills and community and population health programs. She is a student favorite, and we are honored to have Dr. Chin as one of our clinical educators.”

“I have found myself busier than ever in my retirement with working at the Medical Partnership, ACHA, and the COVID-19 Vaccine Steering Committee,” said Chin. “My daughter tells everyone that I have failed miserably at retirement. She's right.”

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Vaccinating Athens-Clarke County

By Lindsey Derrick

W

hen COVID-19 began spreading through the country last year, the Athens Free Clinic, sponsored by the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, knew it had to step into action.

The clinic, which focusses on treating the underserved communities in Athens-Clarke County, pivoted its efforts to administering COVID-19 vaccines in February 2021.

The Transition to Vaccines The road to offering the COVID-19 vaccine began with a change in curriculum at the Medical Partnership. With vaccine rollout becoming more widespread, Medical Partnership administration shifted the curriculum of the community and population health course to allow first- and second-year students to become trained to give vaccines.

“Since the Medical Partnership opened its doors in 2010, our mission has been to engage and serve the communities around us,” said Dr. Michelle Nuss, campus dean of the Medical Partnership. “When the vaccine became available, we knew we could expand our services to include giving the COVID-19 vaccine.”

To make the dream a reality, the clinic partnered with multiple agencies and organizations – including the Department of Public Health, Clarke County School District, Athens-Clarke County Government, ACC Neighborhood Leaders, and more.

Students received vaccine training in the campus’s clinical skills lab before training on-site with community partners at DPH. “It was a huge relief, because our students wanted to help,” said Dr. Suzanne Lester, medical director of MP Mobile/ Athens Free Clinic. “To involve them in direct patient care is such an amazing opportunity, and it allows them to give back to the community and be part of the solution.”

Dr. Suzanne Lester demonstrates how to administer vaccines. Below: David Kang gives a COVID-19 vaccine to patient Jane Thompson at DPH.

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COV E R S TO R Y www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Vaccinating Athens-Clarke County The mobile clinic has served a role in vaccinating thousands in AthensClarke County—many of which would not have been able to receive the vaccine if not for the clinic.

The clinic has traveled to multiple sites across the area to administer vaccines. Sites include—Athens Community Council on Aging, Potter’s House, Columbia Brookside, Bethel Village, and more.

“The Medical Partnership’s mobile clinic is providing a vital service to our neighbors across Athens-Clarke County,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead.

In March of 2020, the clinic participated in their first mass vaccination event when it administered almost 1,400 shots to Clarke County School District employees.

Students, faculty, and staff from the clinic returned in April to vaccinate around 450 students and guardians from CCSD and Foothills Charter High School.

CCSD superintendent, Dr. Xernona Thomas, accompanied her daughter, Camille, to get her vaccine.

“We are excited for the opportunity for her to be able to get her vaccine so she will be able to have a little more freedom and confidence as we try to return to normalcy,” said Thomas.

Lester said volunteers and operators have adopted a motto, “We are still here for you,” to encourage community members to feel comfortable reaching out to clinic staff for assistance. Volunteers also have worked with local agencies to provide holistic responses to those diagnosed with COVID-19 including help coordinating medical care, financial services, meal deliveries, safe quarantine procedures, childcare, and social support programs.

“The mobile clinic provides hope, comfort and security to those who have nowhere to turn in such unprecedented times. While hospitals have been flooded with COVID-19 cases, and COVID-19 testing sites were struggling with limited testing kits, the mobile clinic stepped up to perform COVID-19 testing and provide care to the patients most vulnerable to the virus, both medically and financially,” said Hamzah Ali, a fourth-year student who cofounded the mobile clinic.

As of December 2, over 3,800 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered by the clinic.

“It’s a village effort,” Lester said. “The partnership with DPH, Athens-Clarke County Government, and our community partners has been overwhelmingly positive. We are not doing this alone.”

“For our students, this has been such a tremendous experience,” said Nuss.

“They feel so grateful to be able to support our local communities and move us one step close to ending the pandemic.”

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COV E R S TO R Y

Lauran Zeineddine gives a vaccine to Marsha Thomas at the Cedar Shoals High School gym.

For more information on the Medical Partnership Mobile Clinic/Athens Free Clinic and to see what we're up to, please like and follow our Facebook page by scanning the code ␐

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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AU/UGA Medical Partnership Alumni Snapshot 152 total Alumni have completed residency and/or fellowship 18 Alumni served as Chief Residents 42% of Alumni are practicing in Georgia 82% of Alumni are practicing in the Southeast United States.

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One doctor’s lesson to medical students: listen and learn from patients

By Hayley Major Dr. Brett Magner is on a mission not only to break down health care barriers in Athens-Clarke County, but also to train future doctors through a people-centered approach to medicine.

Magner, an assistant professor with the Augusta University/ University of Georgia Medical Partnership, advises medical students to be approachable by being human.

“If you’re able to meet patients where they’re at and have meaningful conversations with them, that can have a huge impact on their lives,” he said.

Magner is a 2015 graduate from the AU/UGA Medical Partnership and specializes in family medicine in underserved areas. Family medicine addresses comprehensive healthcare for all ages and genders, and physicians in this field are often primary care doctors. Typical for his specialty, Magner wears many hats.

Taking care of diverse populations Magner co-teaches first- and second-year Medical Partnership students alongside Dr. Suzanne Lester, an associate professor of family medicine and medical director of the Athens Free Mobile Clinic, and Dr. Farris Johnson, a native Athenian and family medicine physician.

“Dr. Magner’s return to the Medical Partnership has been a reinfusion of the life energy which was given him as a student here,” said Johnson. “His caring, nurturing spirit, coupled with academic excellence, have been vital in the Community Health and Free Clinic initiative. The Athens/Northeast Georgia communities have benefited greatly by his engagement, and [he] will continue to improve the lives of those served as well as those educated here.”

In their community population health course, students in the class learn basic clinical skills, but they also learn about health disparities and the practical implications of those disparities on patients’ lives.

“In Athens, there’s a large population of underinsured and uninsured patients,” Magner said. “So just getting in to see your primary care physician can be tough for a lot of people. And even if they are able to get in, they may not be able to pay for the appropriate labs or medications or imaging they need.”

To give students experience addressing those needs, the class partners with the Athens Free Mobile Clinic as well as several local organizations including Advantage Behavioral Health,

Nuçi’s Space, and the Clarke County School District, among others.

These collaborative projects amplify the work of local organizations while also giving medical students firsthand experience building community relationships and assisting Athenians who otherwise may not be able to receive the medical care they need.

“If we get a call about a patient who needs care but can’t go to the ER, or someone who needs to be seen in an outpatient setting, we try to make that happen,” Magner said.

Listening to patients When he’s not working with students, Magner makes time to respond to local patients through the mobile clinic. Sponsored by the Medical Partnership, the clinic offers a range of free and low-cost services to Clarke County residents, from COVID-19 vaccinations to specialty-care referrals.

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS

Bridging the health care gap in Athens-Clarke County

In a recent call, Magner visited a patient who needed care at an HIV outreach partner site.

“I met with them and was able to get a full history and get them set up with the appropriate referral. That’s the beauty of the mobile clinic,” he said. “We schedule vaccine clinics, but we also fit in primary care.”

Since its inception in 2018, the mobile clinic has provided nearly $170,000 in medical care to more than 700 Athens community members. To date, the clinic also has administered over 3,800 COVID-19 vaccines and 3,500 COVID-19 tests to Athenians in underserved communities.

“It’s nice to work with the mobile clinic because I have the time to sit down with a patient, listen to their story, help them find the resources to do what they need, and I don’t have to worry about them feeling like they can’t pay for something,” said Magner.

Whether through the clinic or other partner organizations, students and faculty within the AU/UGA Medical Partnership are building bridges within the Athens community. And for Magner, that’s one of the most essential parts of being a healthcare practitioner.

“I always tell my students, you’re going to able to learn the medicine, but if you can understand the patient and hear where they’re coming from, you’re over halfway there in taking care of them.” www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Saumya Dave,

Author/Doctor

By Tai Sherman

Medical Partnership Alumna Saumya Dave is a writer, psychiatrist, and mental health advocate.

Dr. Saumya Dave’s (Class of 2015) new book What a Happy Family, was released this past June. As a writer, she enjoys exploring the unique dynamics that exist in families. Her debut novel, Well-Behaved Indian Women, was featured in The New York Times Book Review, ELLE, Bustle, Buzzfeed, and more.

Saumya was born in India and grew up in Atlanta.

In her seventh grade journal, she wrote: "I will be a psychiatrist and writer someday". She is a graduate of Georgia Tech and the AU/UGA Medical Partnership, where she was an inductee into the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

She completed her psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, where she was a chief resident and an inductee into the AΩA Medical Honors Society.

She completed a psychoanalytic fellowship with the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

Dr. Dave was recently interviewed by Mindy McGinnis, for the podcast,

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Writer Writer Pants on Fire. During that podcast, Dr. Dave discussed her path to being both a physician and a writer.

“I have been reading fiction for my entire life, so when I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor and a writer. It wasn't until college when people said to me, you're going to have to pick one, you can't do both, people don’t do that, and I saw that reflected in the community and the greater world at large around me. So, I thought, okay, I do have to pick and I picked the pre-med part of it and thought, okay, I will write later, I will write in my free time. I learned very quickly that it doesn't always work that way. I know there are a lot of disciplined people out there who can put in their time to all the things that matter to them. But I learned about myself that if I didn't block off hours and if I didn't commit to writing the way I committed to this other career that I was going after, it would get lost eventually. And that was something that really scared me.

From a young age, as the daughter of immigrants, as someone who felt like an outsider many, many times growing up, I turned to fiction to teach me about life. When my debut book came out in July of 2020, I learned by going to a lot of virtual book clubs that a lot of people turned to fiction to teach them about life, to comfort them, to entertain them.

During my residency training, when I was learning about the ins and outs of psychiatry, I realized I wasn't finding very much fiction that explored mental health. There are books out there that do

that and they do it really, really well.

I just couldn't find one about a family and about the things they do and don't tell each other, the roles they put on each other and the roles they play they when they're together and how those roles impact their own selves when they're not even with their family members, like in their workplaces and their romantic relationships and their friendships.

So, after my debut book came out, I thought, what if this is what the second book is about? What if I put together some of the insights I've learned through my psychiatry training and through seeing patients and put it through fiction and see how that comes out as a story, the kind of story that I always hope to read.

I also believe there's so much to be said about keeping our passions alive and present no matter what they are. All the writers I've met over the years, they feel as though it's this core part of who they are. So, when they don't write for very long periods of time, they want to return to it. And of course, it is difficult, because life happens and so many things might be going on. But I've always found that, whether it's a week, a month, a year, whatever it is, people who love words want to return to words.

One thing that was going through my head a lot when I was in college and I was completely focused on the premed path was, is my future self going to

be resentful?

That question kept coming up again and again and I realized that I don't want to be resentful when I'm older. I was in my early twenties at that time, and I just knew I didn’t want to be resentful. I asked myself, what can I do to prevent future resentment? And that question has helped me in a lot of daily and longer-term decisions.”

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS

Campus Dean Dr. Shelley Nuss and Campus Associate Dean for Medical Education Dr. Scott Richardson are excited to read Dr. Saumya Dave's new book “What a Happy Family”. (Her first book, “Well-Behaved Indian Women”, was released last year.)

Dr. Dave has a passion for women’s mental health and wellness. She and her husband, Samir Sheth, founded thisisforHER, a nonprofit which uses art therapy to improve mental health awareness and education for women and girls in low- and middleincome countries. She is a practicing therapist, as well as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai, where she teaches narrative medicine.

You can read and hear this podcast in its entirety at: mindymcginnis.com/podcast/saumya-dave Dave is an alumna from the Medical Partnership's Class of 2015. She completed her psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, where she was a chief resident.

She is currently a practicing therapist and an adjunct professor at Mount Sinai in New York City.

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS

Ebony Caldwell, MD CLASS OF 2018

Dr. Ebony Caldwell recently returned to campus over homecoming weekend to share experiences and lessons she has learned as chief resident at Howard University Hospital’s psychiatry program. Hosted by the Psychiatry Student Interest Group, and the Office of Communications and External Affairs, Dr. Caldwell spoke to current students about the realities of managing patient treatment, medication and recovery in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Dr. Caldwell spoke extensively about her passion for addiction medicine, and told students that she feels that her education at the AU/UGA Medical Partnership truly prepared her for life as a resident.

What made you decide to go into your specialty?

During my rotations I found that psychiatry was the rotation that I was most excited about. I enjoyed having time to sit down and talk with patients.

What unique preparation did the Medical Partnership give you for your residency?

I think the Partnership prepared me to teach and to learn independently. The small group curriculum provides you with so many tools and opportunities to guide your own learning and process information in a means that allows you to digest it and then be able to share your knowledge with others. The skills I learned have aided me to transition to teacher with medical students, interns, and even patients.

How does your current position correspond to where you envisioned yourself as when you started medical school?

I had no idea that I would end up where I am now. If you

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told me M1 year that I'd be a chief resident in a psychiatry residency program heading to complete a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine I would have laughed it off. I have immensely enjoyed the journey and encourage current medical student to be open to fields and specialties that you never imagined coming into the medical school.

If you could give advice to the undergraduate medical education students at the Medical Partnership, what advice would you give?

Do not be afraid to ask for help. So often as medical students, we're used to being great at everything. Getting to a point where you're struggling, whether academically or personally, can feel like defeat. However, there are resources available to you and people who will rally to support you if you speak up.

What is the most rewarding part of your residency?

Working with my patients and seeing their recovery.

Because of the stigma and misunderstanding of mental health in our society, so many times our patients are written off as "crazy" or "addicts" who are unable to live full, productive lives.

Why I GIVE

By Matthew A Boegehold PhD Chair of Basic Sciences and Professor of Physiology at AU/UGA Medical Partnership

O

ur faculty are passionate educators who are dedicated not only to helping our students acquire the knowledge and clinical skills they will need to become successful clinicians, but also to their growth as ethical, compassionate individuals and lifelong learners. Our faculty, staff, and students are also highly committed to serving the local community in many ways, helping to improve lives and reduce health disparities among underserved groups on a daily basis. These are just a few of the reasons why the Medical Partnership is such a special place, and I feel privileged to work with so many amazing colleagues here on a daily basis.

I am motivated to give to the Medical Partnership not by any single issue or program, but rather by my strong overall belief in its people and in their shared missions to educate excellent physicians, provide first-rate health care, and improve access to that care.

I want to do my part in ensuring that we continue to grow and become even more successful in carrying out these vital missions.

––––––––––

Giving to the Medical Partnership As heath care and medical education evolve, it is important that the Medical Partnership keep pace with changes that affect the way medicine is taught, learned, and practiced. We pride ourselves on providing exceptional academic, clinical, and personal support for all of our students, as well as offering research opportunities. Your support will make an immeasurable difference in removing barriers to medical school that many students face.

What are our priorities?

1. Providing scholarship opportunities that reduce the debt burden of our students upon graduation 2. Providing scholarships to attract and retain medical students from under-represented populations 3. Sustaining student and faculty research 4. Providing support to sustain and strengthen our community outreach programs 5. Increasing alumni giving How to Give There are numerous ways to support the Medical Partnership with your philanthropy. Some of the ways include annual gifts, endowing student scholarships and faculty positions, corporate support, matching gifts and planned giving.

For more information on giving, or to donate online, please visit website at medicalpartnership.usg.edu/giving

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Biomedical Design Program:

Grant allows worlds of medicine and engineering to collide

By Lindsey Derrick

T

eamwork makes the dream work.

A phrase that is known all over the world, and in the case of a program featuring three University of Georgia departments, rings true to its core.

DAWG, or Design Achieved with Generosity Engineering Capstone Design, is a biodesign program that partners the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, the UGA College of Engineering, and the UGA Innovation District.

The Medical Partnership’s Dr. Jonathan Murrow and College of Engineering’s Dr. Cheryl Gomillion partnered up with Tim Martin and Kevin Wu from the Innovation District to come up with DAWG. The program began in the 2020-2021 academic year and is part of the College of Engineering’s Biological Engineering Senior Capstone Design course—the course is funded by a $30,000 VentureWell faculty grant and is modeled after the Biodesign Program at Stanford University.

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The two-semester course provides opportunities for students to engage in solving real-world engineering design problems through application of knowledge and skills learned in the classroom.

The program was initially piloted with the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine before Murrow assisted with placing students into medical clinical sites. The students were placed at the Piedmont Athens Regional Community Care Clinic in Athens for the first year.

“My role as campus associate dean for research at the Medical Partnership is to try to connect UGA with clinical partners who might help support research or teaching,” said Murrow.

During their time at the clinic, 20-25 students worked in teams to assess its needs.

“The students worked with clinicians to ty to identify areas in their work, their day-to-day workflow, problems they faced while taking care of patients that could be solved by engineering solutions,” said Murrow.

Students then identified a problem they wanted to address and came up with a solution. They then had to find a way to combat the issue and pitched their ideas.

“Ultimately, we hope to address needs and issues present in the clinic setting to increase the quality of care for all patients, while driving student innovation,” said Gomillion.

population the Medical Partnership strives to serve.

“Through partnerships with clinical sites, our goal is to have students work to address problems to support the needs of underserved patients or the staff that work with these patients in the clinic setting,” said Gomillion. “Collaboration with the Community Care Clinic is intended to increase student awareness of underserved communities, enhancing their social competence. We want to integrate engineering design and entrepreneurial innovation with clinical immersion experiences in the community clinic towards inspiring innovations developed by students for solving unmet medical needs for underserved populations.”

Once students complete the program, they have the opportunity to continue their research and development process with the Innovation District.

I N N OVAT I O N

“The biodesign approach emphasizes a multiphase process that centers around integrating engineering students into the healthcare experience through clinical immersion, where the students participate in shadowing of clinical mentors to define an unmet clinical need,” said Gomillion.

Murrow said he hopes to see more of these partnerships that benefit multiples groups of people.

“Students had a good experience. They learned a lot about delivery of care and some of the challenges,” he said.

The program has expanded to two additional clinical site this year to include both Piedmont Oconee Health-Watkinsville and Mercy Health Clinic, and Gomillion hopes they can expand even more in the future.

Gomillion and Murrow also hope the students get awareness of the underserved population in Athens who may not otherwise have access to medical care if not for the clinic—a

A student team working with clinic staff member to test their prototype of Car Attached Airborne Droplet Shield that they designed to protect staff during potential car visits with patients. Taken by Team: Student Medical Solutions (Taylor Brown, Kimberly Benkiser, Bryceson Jones, Jack Nadaud, & Skylor Vance)

ABOUT THE INNOVATION DISTRICT The University of Georgia’s Innovation District is a community of people, programs, and places working together to foster an ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship, and learning.

It brings together bright minds from disciplines across campus to take on challenges from multiple angles, shape discoveries into marketable solutions, and educate tomorrow’s creators to be skilled, experienced, and versatile.

More info at https://innovation.uga.edu/

ABOUT THE INNOVATORS PLEDGE The Innovators’ Pledge is a community of innovators – creators, equity holders, and entrepreneurs – who have made a nonbinding promise to share their future success with UGA. It’s up to the innovator to decide when, how, and how much they’re thinking of giving. The innovator should have a business in place or being built that they would expect to monetize in the coming years by selling, going public, etc. Innovators enjoy networking and educational events that exclusive to this group.

More info at https://give.uga.edu/how/innovators/

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Biotech start-up moves into Delta Innovation Hub Kevin McCully (left) and Jonathan Murrow stand outside the Delta Innovation Hub, the new home for their company, InfraredRX. The company aims to produce “early versions of the Star Trek tricorder,” McCully says. (Photo by Edwin Hammond) Kent Nilsson, MD, (opposite, right) InfraredRX founder and chief medical officer.

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The University of Georgia Delta Innovation Hub welcomed a new start-up earlier this October: InfraredRX, a biotechnology company founded by three UGA faculty members.

The creation of Drs.Kevin McCully, Kent Nilsson and Jonathan Murrow, InfraredRX’s mission is to discover, develop, and deliver improved measures of skeletal muscle blood flow and mitochondrial function for use in bettering patient health.

“Simply put, our vision is to produce early versions of the Star Trek tricorder,” said McCully, president and chief scientific officer of InfraredRX. “We want to advance the use of noninvasive technologies to study skeletal muscle in patients with a wide variety of medical issues. And we want this use to help patients get better.”

The company was founded in 2014 when a grant opportunity came to McCully and Murrow. They had worked on a number of research projects together after Murrow came to Athens in 2008—McCully is a professor in the Mary Francis Early College of Education’s kinesiology department, Murrow is the campus associate dean for research and a professor of medicine with the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership.

“The grant was looking for companies who were partnering with universities and interested in developing technology that can measure blood flow in tissue using near infrared light,” said Murrow, CEO of InfraredRX. “Well, that’s Kevin’s area of specialty and my area of clinical interest.”

They joined with Kent Nilsson, associate professor of medicine with the Medical Partnership, who specializes in electrophysiology and was an old friend of Murrow’s from their residencies at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The trio formed InfraredRX, Inc.. to apply for this grant, and they’ve been working together ever since.

“Our efforts over the past six years or so have been to take knowledge and technology that Kevin has developed in his lab and translate that into a commercially viable product—hardware and software—that could be of use to other researchers and to clinicians in trying to understand how mitochondria in the muscle can be affected in different disease states,” said Murrow.

I N N OVAT I O N

By Clarke Schwabe

Thus far, the company has found success: they’ve received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Georgia Research Alliance, and they’re building a customer base within their market.

“Recently, we’ve had discussions with the FDA about clinical applications and have begun selling the software package to research labs around the world,” said Nilsson, the company’s chief medical officer.

“Nearing the end of the first phase of our business plan, we are excited to pursue phases II and III, which involve using the technology to diagnose, intervene and treat diseases ranging from peripheral arterial disease to ‘long’ COVID-19 to statin-induced muscle pain.”

The company’s move to the Delta Innovation Hub figures to help considerably with the transition to these next phases, which will require, among other things, growing their team and learning how best to market their product. In this regard, InfraredRX is already enjoying one benefit of being part of the Hub: plugging into the broader UGA community.

They are working with marketing and business analytics students from the Terry College of Business.

“I’m looking forward to InfraredRX’s continued integration in the Innovation District, but I’m also looking forward to other companies taking advantage of this opportunity,” said Murrow.

“Because I think that for everything that Athens has, all the advantages here, there’s still so much potential waiting to be realized.”

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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Disinfection +

for HYDRATION all

By Tai Sherman & Dr. John Parker

Innovation in health care is essential to making progress in medical science, patient care, and health outcomes.

Physician-led innovation is responsible for major breakthroughs in disease prevention, detection, and treatment and medical technology.

John B. Parker, MD/MPH (AU/UGA Medical Partnership Class of 2021) is one such innovator working to prevent people from dying of diseases like cholera and dysentery.

While earning his dual MD/MPH degree at the Medical Partnership and University of Georgia, Dr. Parker began thinking of ways to prevent of the spread of disease during disaster and emergency situations. Dr. Parker began experimenting in his kitchen to invent a product that could help solve this problem.

The result was a revolutionary breakthrough that combines water disinfection and hydration in one tablet.

I talked with Dr. Parker about his journey as an inventor and physician: What inspired you to create PurLyte?

I guess I should start by saying that at some point in medical school, I became interested in coming up with simple solutions to complex problems. I began looking for big problems that could easily be fixed. Once I started seeing things through that lens, I feel like I started to see little opportunities everywhere.

The first time I saw an opportunity worth pursuing was when I was reading a paper about the cholera outbreak that occurred in Haiti 36

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in 2010-2011. During this outbreak, over 10,000 people died as a result of a disease that's both preventable and treatable, something that is very apparent when you consider how few people in the US have any experience at all with cholera (or even know that it still kills people).

I read that household bleach was being used to disinfect water in an attempt to decrease transmission of cholera, but problems existed in getting people to actually use it (given the poor taste), getting people to use it correctly (dosing it correctly, giving it enough time to work, etc.), and making sure people had access to it.

I also read that World Health Organization Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) - something I was already familiar with thanks to Dr. Cohen's great lectures at the Medical Partnership, if given early enough, is often completely effective at treating the dehydration caused by cholera. The solution is very inexpensive since it's just sugar and salt in a very specific ratio, and was vastly underutilized during this outbreak. Problems also existed with ORS that were similar to the problems seen with bleach; getting people to use it correctly (dosing), getting people to actually use it, and making sure people had clean water to make it with.

In the margins of the paper I was reading, I actually drew out a way to combine a chlorine disinfectant and ORS in a dissolvable tablet that would allow them to be paired together into one product.

I started looking into chlorine disinfection and WHO ORS more and more and searched for six months or so looking for a product that combines these two things and I just couldn't find it anywhere.

I was finding that these things are used together very often, they complement each other very well, and they could easily be combined in a way that fixes problems people encounter when they're used separately.

How did your time at the Medical Partnership assist you in creating this innovative product?

Being at the Medical Partnership was crucial in many ways, and I don't think I would've started PurLyte if I hadn't been there. I had lectures from incredible teachers like Dr. Howard Cohen and Dr. Amy Baldwin. I did an internship with Dr. Jonathan Murrow and learned a lot from him on concepts related to business in medicine, ethical considerations for physicians engaging in business in medicine, and how to lead. I had access to all that Athens and UGA have to offer, and the list goes on and on.

Arguably one of the most important things I gained from being in Athens was a friendship with my first business partner and co-founder of PurLyte, Lee Brackman. I couldn't have started PurLyte without his help.

What type of support did you receive from UGA? I was pursuing a Master of Public Health with a concentration in disaster management at the time, so I was exposed to leaders working in and around the Institute for Disaster Management, including Dr. James O'Neal, former commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, Dr. Curt Harris, and many other individuals with tons of experience in disaster management. PurLyte won UGA's QuickPitch competition about a month after we started, providing us with $1,000 to get started and our first real validation as a company.

We went through UGA's NSF-Funded I-Corps program in the spring of 2020 as well, allowing us a budget of several thousand dollars and teaching us many of the core tenets of being entrepreneurs and running a startup company.

them to prevent diarrheal disease outbreaks.

What is one of the biggest lessons about innovation you have learned through this process?

Allow yourself to be creative and imaginative when dreaming up potential solutions to problems. When you find something that could work, force yourself to learn everything you can about the topic, and talk to people who are experts. Passionate people often enjoy a good ol' cold call from someone who genuinely wants to pick their brain and learn. Test the idea as hard as you can up front so you can fail early if you're going to fail at all.

Oh, one more thing, don't let yourself be dazzled by someone who has an impressive background or name. A name means virtually nothing at all if the person doesn't work hard and share the workload (speaking from experience). Do some research on someone's background and previous business partners before you sign a contract with them and give up equity or control. I cannot stress this enough.

I N N OVAT I O N

After lots of researching I was finally just like, "I believe this would help prevent deaths if it existed. It definitely doesn't exist yet, but I'm pretty sure I can make this happen." Soon after that I formed PurLyte LLC, asked two friends of mine to join, and just kind of got to work.

How are you balancing running your company with being a new resident?

I kind of knew that residency was coming, so I brought on talented and hard-working co-founders who help carry the load. Emergency medicine is also a wonderful specialty in that you will almost always have at least 1-2 days a week to do whatever you want, even as an intern. I can't lie, it is a lot of work. It definitely helps that I enjoy working on both.

Dr. Parker is a first-year emergency medicine resident at Piedmont Macon Healthcare in Macon, Georgia. More information on PurLyte can be found at purlyte.com.

What are your future goals for your company?

The whole reason we started this company was to set up a sustainable way to develop and fund donations of these tablets to those who could benefit from them, but don't have the means to purchase them. As we've grown, we've realized that hikers, campers, international travelers, and military personnel are also very interested in our product. Our initial market will be the recreational outdoor and military markets where we will sell our disinfecting sports drink tablets, PurLyte Quest Tablets, rather than our hopefully more clinically useful disinfecting ORS tablets, PurLyte Clean Hydration Tablets, which require more rigorous testing before we can prove that they will be beneficial when treating sick patients.

We've added on two more members to our PurLyte team, James Taylor and Stephen Simmons, and with their help, we've secured a contract manufacturer, and are about to begin working on an STTR Grant Application with a branch of the US military to fund further development of our tablets and explore additional applications of our technology.

Once we're up and running, we plan to begin donating our tablets to NGOs and humanitarian aid agencies who could use www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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An Innovative Approach to Personalizing Health and Well-Being at the Medical Partnership

By Tai Sherman The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the extent to which primary care physicians are struggling with stress, burnout, and suicidality while attending to an unsustainable chronic disease burden in their patients. To address this, the AU/ UGA Medical Partnership established the Office of Personalized Health and Well-Being, a first of its kind national academic medicine training collaboration that creates training in lifestyle solutions to improve the wellness of physicians and their patients.

This innovative, para-curricular program delivers cutting-edge instruction in physician well-being and personalized health solutions to assist in the management of chronic diseases. The training is for medical students, resident physicians, and their patients.

The office, led by Dr. Cathy Snapp, is supported through a partnership with MBN Systems and Pure and has been

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awarded federal, state, and corporate grants to develop well-being models and beta test them within various academic medicine centers. Dr. Snapp established a collaboration between the Medical Partnership and the University of Florida’s College of Medicine to develop the necessary curricular offerings for medical learners, Medical Partnership faculty, and their patients. So far, training programs have been developed on: ʝ Personalized, root-cause analysis of disease ʝ Systems biology whole-person focused models of assessment and intervention ʝ Nutritional medicine ʝ Genomics and epigenetics, and ʝ Contemporary, sustainable behavioral change These programs bolster personal immune system health and inner resilience, which improve the health of faculty and medical learners, including medical students, residents, and fellows. They also meet the growing requirement from accreditation

agencies to train medical learners in whole- person, lifestyle-focused care, while creating a supportive learning community within academic medicine.

“We are well-positioned to be successful with this initiative, because the data shows that healthier, happier, lifestyletrained physicians are the key to the health of patients in this era of escalating chronic and infectious disease. The time is now to train the next-generation physicians in whole-person lifestylefocused care. I’m so grateful to be a part of this team that has the experience, leadership, and passion to spearhead the needed transformation of medical education,” said Dr. Snapp.

A continuing medical education certificate program in the science and practice of functional well-being has been launched for faculty and will ultimately be offered for community physicians as well. You can learn more about these programs by visiting our website at: medicalpartnership.usg.edu.

I N N OVAT I O N

Simulation Center Escape Room presented at IAMSE Conference

By Lindsey Derrick The Augusta University/University of Georgia Simulation Center is being recognized for an innovative way to help students learn.

“We piloted the escape room three times with different groups of students and faculty in order to make sure all of the puzzles and clues worked like we wanted them to,” said Martin.

The center had an oral presentation accepted to the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) in June for their use of a Simulation Escape Room.

Martin said not only does the escape room allow for students to get a feel of the sim suite, it also helps them work on teamwork—the better the teamwork, the faster the escape time.

The Sim Escape Room first made its way to the first- and second-year curriculum in 2020 to help students become acclimated with the sim suite.

After the success of the escape room simulation, the activity will remain in the M1 and M2 curriculum for the fall of each year, but it may make its way further into the medical community.

“I had seen a few presentations and articles about nursing schools using escape rooms to reinforce clinical information, and only one or two that were designed for medical students,” said Dr. Aimee Martin, campus director of simulation and ultrasound.

“I am contemplating redesigning our existing escape room format to be more appropriate for orienting interns and residents to the sim environment,” said Martin. “This will likely involve using more challenging clinical puzzles, and perhaps making the stakes a little higher (like a bad patient outcome) if they don’t escape the room in the allotted time.”

“We wanted to come up with an interactive, hands-on way for students to become oriented to the simulated medical environment and to give them the opportunity to become familiar with the simulated patient manikins,” said Sarah Gibbs, the former simulation laboratory coordinator.

The sim curriculum had received feedback that first year students wanted a better orientation to the sim suite and the manikins, so Martin and Gibbs brainstormed ways to make that become a reality.

“I am glad we can share the activity with others, and I hope other simulation centers who want to create an escape room activity can use it as a template or a guide,” said Gibbs.

The oral presentation, “Using an Escape Room Activity to Orient Leaners to the Simulated Medical Environment” (authors on the project include Martin, Gibbs, Casey Bassett, PhD, Matt Boegehold, PhD, and Julie Gaines, MLIS) was presented by Martin at the virtual IAMSE Annual Conference June 12-17. www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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O

n Wednesday, September 15, students, faculty, staff, and guests gathered in George Hall for the Class of 2024 to present their research findings for the Medical Partnership’s 11th annual Research Symposium.

The Medical Scholars Program (MSP) is an opportunity for students to expand their scholarly experiences and learn how medical knowledge is derived. They also learn how to frame a testable hypothesis, write a research proposal, carry out a project, evaluate scientific and medical data, and write up their results. It provides them with an opportunity to communicate their findings through presentations at local, regional, and sometimes national scientific meetings.

Their findings are then presented at the annual Research Symposium in the fall. The majority of participants are second year medical students who complete research in the summer between first and second year.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s MSP saw the largest number of students conducting research—44 members of the class (88%) took part in the program. This is highest level of participation since the program’s inception in 2015.

“As the director of the Medical Scholars Program I think it’s terrific that so many students chose to pursue a research project this summer,” said Dr. Leslie Lee. “Typically, we’ve had about 75% of the class participate in the program and I believe most, if not all, have found it to be a valuable learning experience. I’m always impressed by how much the students accomplish and learn in just 10 weeks and the outstanding quality

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of their presentations, so I’m thrilled that this year that many more students will be taking advantage of this opportunity.”

Last year, all MSP projects were done remotely due to COVID-19, but this year was mixed. Some institutions accepted students and allowed them to do in-person projects, while others completed their research remotely.

Yelissa Navarro looked at how the COVID-19 pandemic affected trauma admission at Piedmont Athens Regional. She took on the project with fellow M2s Chandler Johnson and Forrest Clark.

“The shelter-in-place order went into effect in early 2020, and I was curious to see if this changed the population of trauma patients admitted to the ICU,” said Navarro.

They reviewed over 700 hospital charts from the Piedmont Athens Regional Trauma registry and compared different trends in patient demographics, injury characteristic, and events that arose during their hospital stay.

“We found that there was a shift in the population of trauma patients admitted during the pandemic,” said Navarro. “While trauma admissions declined during the pandemic, those that were admitted to the ICU had more severe injuries, comorbidities, and complications during their stay. Yet despite these more severe injuries, the amount of physical therapy referrals as well as mobilization times (from time of admissions to when they begin therapy) remained the same.”

11th Annual Student Research Symposium

By Lindsey Derrick

Navarro said she was excited to tackle research that dealt with the pandemic.

The Class of 2024 traveled across the country partaking in many different specialties for the research:

“Entering medical school during the pandemic is quite an interesting experience in terms of its effect on our medical education,” she said. “We are seeing active changes in how we treat patients even now. I chose this topic because it’s important to see in what ways COVID-19 and any other health crisis, changes the population of people seeking help and find more effective ways to treat them.”

Locations: AU in Augusta – 2 Medical Partnership faculty – 3 UGA faculty – 5 Emory University – 18 Johns Hopkins University – 1 Morehouse/Grady Hospital – 1 Medical University of South Carolina – 1 Northwestern University – 1

“I see the Medical Scholars Program as a central component of our campus educational mission which is to educate excellent physicians with the necessary skills and attributes to meet the challenges of the 21st century practice of medicine,” said Lee. “This mission is achieved in part through a curriculum that is grounded in evidence-based clinical decision making. As such, it is important for students to learn where the evidence comes from, be it basic biomedical, clinical or translational science, and how to critically appraise and make sense of the data, so that as they progress through their careers as physicians, they are able to navigate the vast amount of medical knowledge available and incorporate new knowledge into their practice and provide their patients with the best possible care.”

“I haven’t performed any research like this previously, and I was excited for the opportunity through MSP,” said Navarro. “This experience has been incredible, and it has strengthened my desire to pursue more research in the future.”

New York University – 1 Rush Medical Center – 3 Seattle Research Institute – 1 Sloan Kettering – 1 Stanford University – 1 University of Chicago – 2 University of Colorado – 1 University of Pittsburgh – 1 University of Wisconsin – 1

Specialties represented: ʝ Surgery (various with majority being orthopedics) ʝ Psychiatry ʝ Radiology (various) ʝ Internal Medicine ʝ Emergency Medicine ʝ Anesthesiology ʝ Oncology ʝ Medical Illustration/ObGyn For a full list of presentations and abstracts, please visit our website at https://medicalpartnership.usg.edu/research/.

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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A Look Back

1 1. M3 students took part in orientation in George Hall at the end of June.

2. The third day of M1 orientation featured the annual MCG Alumni Luncheon. Each student received a stethoscope and a personalized note from MCG alumni and friends. Katherine Street and Erik Rosas both received a note from Dr. Mark Ellison.

3. M1 orientation ended the week with a tour of the main UGA campus complete with a stop at Sanford Stadium.

2

3

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4. Students, staff, and faculty celebrated the first day of classes on August 2 with Chick-fil-a biscuits and coffee from Java Joy. 5. On March 10, St. Mary’s Health Care System marked the one-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by planting white flags on the lawn of their hospitals. The flags represented the 1,500 inpatients with COVID-19 who had received care from the hospitals over the last year.

A Look Back

4

5

6 6. M1 students, faculty, and staff gathered in Royar Square on May 15 to honor those who gave their bodies to science.

7

7. Leading by example: 100% of UGA's academic leadership has been vaccinated against COVID-19.

www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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A Look Back

The Class of 2021 was able to celebrate with an in-person, outdoor, socially distanced graduation celebration on May 15.

Newest Medical Partnership Family Additions:

"Norma L. Town, MD" White Coat Dawg Located in the lobby of Winnie Davis Hall Use #NormaDawg when you post selfies!

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"Stitches" Scrub Dawg

Located on the second floor of Russell Hall Use #StitchesDawg when you post self ies!

FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI & STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS Lia Bruner, MD, assistant professor of medicine, presented: Bruner L, Adams Z, and Majeed B. COVID-19 vaccine intention and influences in vulnerable populations. Poster presented at: Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Practice and Quality Improvement Conference; September 13-15, 2021; Virtual Conference.

neighbors.

Suzanne Lester, MD, associate professor of family medicine, was one of the recipients of the Good Neighbor of the Year Award at Porchfest on Sunday, October 10. The award is presented by Envision Athens and is granted to outstanding members of the community who have been nominated by fellow Vicki McKinney, PhD, campus director of phase 3 curriculum, published: VanDerKork K, McKinney VR, Graves L and Harper D. Transgender Education in North American Family Medicine Clerkships – a CERA study. Fam Med. In press.

Don Scott, MD, campus director of geriatrics and palliative care, won the Georgia Gerontology Society’s Marietta Suhart Award. This award recognizes vision and leadership in educating those working with older adults. Scott was recognized at the annual GGS conference on August 10.

Presentations at the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE):

Teshager D, Baldwin A, Bond M, Hill JR, Bruner L. Medical school curricular factors that may contribute to students’ choice of specialty.

Oral presentation at: 25th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE); June 12-15, 2021; Virtual Conference. *This presentation was nominated for an Outstanding Oral Presentation Award.

Amy Medlock, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, published: Medlock AE, Najahi-Missaoui W, Shiferaw MT, Albetel AN, Lanzilotta WN, Dailey HA. Insight into the function of active site residues in the catalytic mechanism of human ferrochelatase. Biochem J. 2021;478(17):3239-3252. doi:10.1042/BCJ20210460 Jonathan Murrow, MD, campus associate dean for research, and former Medical Partnership student Kyle Ulversoy won first place at the American College of Cardiology Quality Summit for their poster that examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on cost and readmission rates among HF patients at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital in Georgia.

Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, MD, professor of medicine, won the 2021 AMPAC Award for Political Participation. Awarded every two-years, the AMPAC Award for Political Participation recognizes an AMA or AMA Alliance member for their outstanding work through volunteer activities in a political campaign or significant health care related election issue such as a ballot initiative or referendum.

Alumna Ronke Olowojesiku, MD, published: Olowojesiku R, Shim DJ, Moppins B, Park D, Patterson JO, Schoenl SA, Gaines JK, Sperr EV, Baldwin A. Menstrual experience of adolescents in the USA: protocol for a scoping review. BMJ Open. 2021 Feb 18;11(2):e040511. doi: 10.1136/ bmjopen-2020-040511.

Bassett CN, Martin AT, Gibbs S, Boegehold MA, Gaines JK. Collaboration among basic science and clinician educators in creating and implementing high fidelity simulation sessions in an integrated preclinical medical education curriculum. Poster presented at: 25th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE); June 12-15, 2021; Virtual Conference.

Martin AT, Gibbs S, Bassett CN, Gaines JK, Boegehold MA. Using an escape room activity to orient learners to the simulated medical environment. Oral presentation at: 25th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE); June 12-15, 2021; Virtual Conference.

Barany DA, Gallman E, VanLeuven AJ, Fiorella L. Drawing insight from medical student drawings.

Oral presentation at: 25th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE); June 12-15, 2021; Virtual Conference.

Medlock AE, Lee LP, Murrow J. A summer research curriculum to cultivate medical student research.

Poster presented at: 25th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE); June 12-15, 2021; Virtual Conference. www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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MEDICAL PARTNERSHIP EMPLOYEES HONORED Medical Partnership faculty and staff gathered virtually Tuesday, April 27 to celebrate extraordinary employees for AY2019/20.

Awards presented during the ceremony were: Teaching Awards, MCG Exemplary Teaching Awards, Educators of the Year, the Outstanding Staff Award, and Years of Service.

AY2019/20 Teaching Awards

Student Advisor of the Year: Exemplary academic support for students, specialty navigation and/or residency planning with students, exemplary mentorship of students – Dr. Ellen House Excellence in Faculty Leadership Award: Established a collaborative environment for the team, used effective team management strategies, used effective project/initiative implementation strategies – Dr. Amy Baldwin Excellence in Scholarship Award: Eligible faculty members must have shared his/her scholarship with national/international forums.

Eligible types of scholarship include peer-reviewed publications, peer reviewed teaching repository, invited publications, books/book chapters, editorials, oral abstracts, and poster abstracts. – Edwin Sperr, MLIS Peer-Nominated Teaching Awards: Effective engagement of teaching methods, effective communication while teaching, effective resource selection, effectiveness of session organization • Small Group Teaching – Dr. Casey Bassett • Large Group Teaching – Dr. Thom Gaddy

• Clinical Skills/Community Health Teaching/Simulation – Dr. Clive Slaughter

Outstanding Staff Award

Recognizes a staff member whose outstanding performance contributes to the overall success of the Medical Partnership. Awardees should: model excellence and outstanding job performance, and consistently go above and beyond their job expectations in supporting the Medical Partnership Adam Evans, MS – IT Professional

AY 2019/20 Medical College of Georgia’s Exemplary Teaching Awards

Forty-eight Medical Partnership faculty members were honored with AY2019/20 Medical College of Georgia’s Exemplary Teaching Awards for their work with students and residents.

Undergraduate awards were based on the amount of teaching that was done (the number of students taught, or the number of hours lectured) and student evaluations. Graduate awards were based on innovations or contributions, and nominees were selected by MCG department chairs.

All of the Medical Partnership awardees were in the undergraduate category: Years 1 & 2 Dr. Andy Albritton Dr. Casey Bassett Dr. Matt Boegehold Dr. Lia Bruner Dr. Thom Gaddy Dr. DeLoris Hesse Dr. Ellen House Dr. Thomas Howdieshell Dr. Aimee Martin Dr. Amy Medlock Dr. John Norris Dr. Scott Richardson Dr. Don Scott Dr. Clive Slaughter Dr. Brett Szymik

2020 Years of Service 10 Years of Service: Molly Bond Julie Gaines DeLoris Hesse Philip Holmes Farris Johnson Suzanne Lester

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Michelle Nuss Paul Peteet Lynn Ramsey Mike Russell Toby Tally Thomas Wells

The PARTNERSHIP PULSE — 2021 Issue

Years 3 & 4 Dr. Ranjana Bhargava Dr. Bill Bostock Dr. Robert Byrne Dr. D.J. Campbell Dr. Jack Chen Dr. Denise Cochran Dr. Donald Cote Dr. John Edry Dr. Sharif Elkabbani Dr. Christina Elstad Dr. Jeffrey English Dr. Rebecca Fletcher Dr. Adam French Dr. Lara Hart Dr. Louis Hempel Dr. Andrew Herrin Dr. Andrew Ke Dr. Carrie Kelly

Dr. Ishmael LampteyMills Dr. Joash Lazarus Dr. Brian Maloney Dr. Robert Meyer Dr. Kelly Montgomery Dr. Eva Moore Dr. Jonathan Murrow Dr. Mohammed Obeidin Dr. David Paulk Dr. Priya Rudolph Dr. Jordan Rush Dr. Margaret Sherman Dr. Ben Thrower Dr. Akilah Tomingas Dr. Gary Walton

2021 Years of Service 5 Years of Service: Jean Chin Latonda Knight Aimee Martin Lina Millan Abby Ward Lela Ward

10 Years of Service: Harvey Ouzts

5 Years of Service: Amy Baldwin Mark Ebell Bryson Greenwood Suzanne Hall John Norris David Paulk

James Pippim Bill Prigge Donald Scott Edwin Sperr

Join us in welcoming our new Faculty & Staff Brett Atchley, MD Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Office of Curriculum

Anna Daniels Foundations of Clinical Medicine Coordinator: Procedural Learning Experience Office of Curriculum

Joshua Emond IT Professional Office of Information Technology Services

Kimberlee Giffen, PhD Assistant Professor of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine Office of Basic Sciences

Kyle Ingram, MEd Clerkship & Enrichment Coordinator Office of Curriculum

Susan Podolsky, MD Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Office of Curriculum

Janice Loeffler, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Office of Curriculum

Kimberly Rathbun, MD, PhD Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine Office of Curriculum

Robert McClowry, MD Interim Campus Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Office of Student and Multicultural Affairs

Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, MD Professor of Medicine Office of Curriculum

Laurel Murrow, MD Associate Professor of Medicine Office of Curriculum

Joshuam Ruiz Vega, MD Chief Resident Office of Graduate Medical Education

Sharon Golden Assessment Coordinator Office of Curriculum

Jamila Pham, MD Chief Resident Office of Graduate Medical Education

Tai Sherman Campus Director of External Affairs Office of Communications & External Affairs

Kearney Gunsalus, PhD Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Office of Basic Sciences

Chuck Pierce Clerkship and Enrichment Coordinator Office of Curriculum

Andrew Sobering, PhD Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Office of Basic Sciences

Faculty, Staff, Students & Alumni: We want to feature YOU! Accepted to a conference? Published in a journal? Honored with an award?

Let us know so we can share the good news with our Medical Partnership family and friends!

Contact the Office of Communications at MPmedia@uga.edu. Please include all pertinent information related to the award, publication, or conference, such as the journal name or professional association, publication citation, and a brief description of the award or article. www.medicalpartnership.usg.edu

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UGA Health Sciences Campus 108 Spear Road Athens, Georgia 30602

Pictured above (clockwise) are James Cho, Quinn Peragine, Eden Woubshet, and Devaunsh Thaker with their Match Day results!

You can help our scholarships GROW !

The White Coat Scholarship fund exists to provide current and perspective students increased access to public medical education in Georgia, and we need your help. We’ve expanded our class size and continue to offer healthcare services free of charge to underserved populations in the Athens area through our Mobile Free Clinic. A gift to the White Coat Scholarship fund will help our students continue to serve these vulnerable communities.

Georgia is facing a critical shortage of healthcare professionals. A gift to the White Coat Scholarship will reduce a student’s medical education debt, alleviating a major barrier to medical education.

Your gift will make a difference.

Donations can be made online online at medicalpartnership.usg.edu/giving/ (scan code at right) or call 706-542-9592 to discuss other giving options.