The Medical College of Georgia in Augusta has started 2011 with a new vision and a new name: Georgia Health Sciences University.
The name reflects the school’s evolution to a comprehensive health sciences university, with colleges that educate future allied health professionals, dentists, doctors, nurses and scientists; and to a modern academic health center.
In addition to the university’s new name, which became effective Feb. 1, the names of Georgia Health Sciences University’s five schools are now the College of Allied Health Sciences, the College of Dental Medicine, the College of Graduate Studies, the Medical College of Georgia and the College of Nursing.
Honor roll: Emory Eastside Medical Center in Snellville has been named to the Georgia Hospital Association’s Partnership for Health and Accountability Quality Honor Roll. Emory Eastside is one of 51 hospitals in Georgia to be placed in the presidential category.
The honor roll is based on clinical data provided by the federal Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services, which administers the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. The data was collected from April 2009 to March 2010.
All acute care hospitals are required to submit care data to Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services. This data details how well a hospital’s caregivers adhere to a list of eight care measures, which are the clinical processes of care that are the most effective methods of treatment for patients who have suffered heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia.
Research grants: Two professors in Mercer University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences were recently awarded state cancer research grants to explore various methods of delivering anti-cancer drugs to needy patients.
Chalet Tan, Ph.D., and Hailing Zhang, Ph.D., both assistant professors of pharmaceutical sciences, were selected by the Georgia Cancer Coalition to be among 12 recipients of 2011 Cancer Research Awards. Tan and Zhang will each receive $50,000 toward research on encapsulating anti-cancer drugs in nanocarriers for drug delivery and targeting. These approaches will enable drugs to recognize cancerous cells and maximize their anti-cancer effects, while minimizing toxicities to normal cells of cancer patients.
The grants are funded by Georgia residents who donate to the Georgia Cancer Research Fund on state income tax forms.
A committee of leading cancer researchers and clinicians conducted the competitive, peer-reviewed grant process. More than 70 proposals were received from researchers across Georgia.
Certification board: Clifton Dennis, a respiratory therapist and asthma educator in pediatrics at MCGHealth in Augusta, has been selected to serve on the National Asthma Educator Certification Board.
Dennis, RRT, AE-C, who joined MCG Health in 2000, serves as lead pediatric therapist, developing treatment protocols for asthma, bronchiolitis and ventilator weaning, and helps coordinate asthma awareness education.
The NAECB is the only organization in the United States working on a national certification process. Its board is composed of 17 individuals, representing the multiple disciplines involved in asthma education.
Quality VP: Emory Eastside in Snellville has named Jill Lapaglia its new vice president of quality. Lapaglia was senior director of clinical outcomes for Methodist Healthcare System in San Antonio.
Prior to her position with Methodist Healthcare System, she was chief nursing officer at the Spine Hospital of South Texas, quality improvement leader of the Central Region and in-home service coordinator for Arkansas Department of Health.
Partnerships extended: Georgia Health Sciences University’s College of Nursing in Augusta has extended partnerships with Macon State University in Macon and Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus to offer its clinical nurse leader program at those institutions for a second year.
The intensive 16-month program is aimed at reducing the nursing shortage by offering advanced degrees to those with non-nursing backgrounds, enabling students with a baccalaureate or higher degree in other fields to obtain a master’s degree in nursing at an accelerated pace.
The program began in 2006 with 13 students at Georgia Health Sciences University’s Augusta campus. The school’s Athens campus began accepting students in 2007.
The expansion was funded by part of a three-year, $1.27 million gift from the Helene Fuld Health Trust.
Board certification: Walter Quiller, RN, CGRN, endoscopy coordinator at MCGHealth in Augusta, recently was certified by the American Board of Certification for Gastroenterology Nurses.
Quiller, who has been a nurse at MCGHealth for 12 years, previously was lead nurse for the MCGHealth Sports Medicine Center and coordinator of the Bloodless Medicine and Surgery Program.
Council appointment: David Berry, MS, RT, director of radiology at MCGHealth in Augusta, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Diagnostic Imaging Council for Novation, the leading supply contracting company for University HealthSystem Consortium member organizations. He will provide strategic leadership on products and services related to diagnostic imaging operations and business issues.
Berry, who joined MCGHealth in 2007, has implemented imaging equipment and services for various organizations.
New assistant dean: Dr. Leonard Daniel Reeves has been named assistant dean of the Georgia Health Sciences University Medical College of Georgia’s Northwest Georgia clinical campus in Rome.
Reeves, a family physician and former assistant director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at Floyd Medical Center, was director of the hospital’s Family Medicine Clinic from 2001 to 2007.
The Northwest Georgia clinical campus, which will be established by July 2013, is part of a plan to increase the Medical College of Georgia’s class size from 190 to 300 students by 2020 to help meet the need for physicians in a state.
Service awards: Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville was one of 10 health care facilities in the nation honored for its community programs at the first annual national Hospital Charitable Service Awards presented by Jackson Healthcare.
Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s Health Access Initiative and Good News Clinics were cited for their volunteer medical personnel who treat the working poor and uninsured in Northeast Georgia with both medical and dental care.
At dinner highlighted with a speech by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, founder of the Center for Health Transformation, the 10 charitable programs were awarded $10,000 each for their good works in their communities. Across the country, 110 hospitals submitted nominations for the awards.
Hospital programs were evaluated in five areas: community impact, innovation, collaboration, transferability and best practices.
Contact us
Do you have any news briefs for Pulse? If so, send an e-mail to jbrieske@ajc.com or call 404-526-5664.
