The impact of the state of Georgia's only public medical school spans from its founding nearly 200 years ago, in 1828, as one of the nation's first medical schools to its current role optimizing health and health care in Georgia and beyond through education, discovery and service.
Fernando Vale, MD, a neurosurgeon who was an early user of a nonpharmacological therapy for treatment-resistant epilepsy called vagus nerve stimulation, this week became among the first in the nation to put a new implantable pulse generator into a patient with one of those early models, which enables her to benefit from the latest technology updates without having to replace her entire device.
Vale, the chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and chief of functional and epilepsy neurosurgery at AU Health, placed the new generator in a 40-year-old patient who received her implant 23 years ago.
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Faculty at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University were recognized with Exemplary Teaching Awards for their contributions to students and residents at the state’s public medical school.
Scientists have evidence that a toxic protein aggregates in the neurons in the gut before it interferes with neurons in the brain.
The new chair comes to MCG from Emory University where he is chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy.
“The Southwest Campus will become a hub where medical students will be trained to address Georgia’s health care challenges and gain valuable experience in the communities in which they are needed to serve,” said Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr..
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The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University has redesigned its four-year core MD curriculum to three years to enable students to better tailor-make their fourth-year learning experience.
The redesign provides a more efficient pathway into primary care for a percentage of students. The majority of students will spend the fourth year of medical school honing clinical and research skills or completing a dual degree.
The MCG 3+ Primary Care Pathway would see a percentage of students who commit to primary care practice in rural or underserved Georgia, graduate in three years and immediately enter a residency in either emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery or psychiatry. In exchange for a commitment to serve an underserved area of the state, those students will receive a scholarship.
Another option for students with the new curriculum will be to use their fourth year to earn a dual degree, like the university’s MD/MBA or MD/MPH. The final option would enable students to use their fourth year for advanced clinical training and/or research in their chosen future career specialty.
