Ted Johnson, MD, MPH
GIM faculty had a productive summer and hit the ground running! Scroll down for our division accomplishments in education, service, and scholarship, including a long list of wide-ranging publications that show off the breadth and depth of our expertise. You’ll also find some special events and a warm welcome to our new GIM faculty.
Don't Miss Opportunities!
Welcome to the GIM Family!
Dr. Kajal Patel welcomed Leo Zahaan Patel Leso to the world in July! Congratulations to Dr. Patel and her family!
Welcome to our new Division faculty!
Kudos and Congratulations!
Excellence to Eminence Lecture featured Yale's Nunez-Smith
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith (pictured below left) was welcomed to Emory by Dr. Saria Hassan, Chair of the Excellence to Eminence in Preventive, Primary, and Palliative Care lecture series. In addition to speaking on "20 Years as a Health Equity Researcher: My View from Research, Government, and Non-profits," Dr. Nunez-Smith met with Grady GIM faculty to talk in-depth about health equity research.
Evidence of our Excellence!
Dr. Bhavin Adhyaru has been named the Director of Clinical Informatics for Grady Health System.
Dr. Blake Anderson led an Emory team and a collaboration with Georgia Tech to develop a natural language processing model to increase efficiency of diagnosing COVID-19 and connecting patients to treatment. Read more.
Dr. Dylan Baker was interviewed for the ReachMD podcast on "Bringing Injectable Treatment to HIV Patients in Atlanta." Georgia has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses out of any state in the country, and so it’s imperative that this medication be more accessible now in order to save future generations from living with HIV. Dr. Baker leads the largest injectable PrEP program in the Southeast. Click here to listen to the
podcast or read the transcript.
Dr. Jada Bussey-Jones, along with other health care and education experts, challenged the audience to address academic elitism in health education, reimagining an educational system that supports all students and trainees as they learn to care for a diverse patient population. If you missed the August 8 National Health Equity Grand Rounds, you can listen to a recording or access the transcript here.
Dr. Rosette Chakkalakal was chosen for the 2023-2024 cohort of the Women's Leadership Development Program: A 5-month course specially designed for mid-career women faculty who demonstrate strong potential for assuming executive leadership positions in academic medicine.
Dr. Lorenzo Di Francesco is featured in a new· Emory Health Digest story Staying Tech Savvy about the Point of Care Diagnostic Curriculum, which is designed to introduce PGY-2 residents to a variety of highly advanced medical devices. Read the full story here.
Dr. Saria Hassan has been named to the core lead role in a newly-funded U54 center grant focused on implementation science for women’s health.
Dr. Kimberly Manning is the new DOM Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Dr. Manning, who until now has served as the inaugural Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, is taking over for Dr. Jada Bussey-Jones. The DOM's DEI program is now viewed as a national leader. View the full announcement.
Dr. Lesley Miller was interviewed on Hepatitis A, B, and C by the AMA for their series What Doctors Wish Patients Knew. To listen to or read the article, click here.
Dr. Mary Solis and Dr. Natasha Travis have been chosen for the URiM Faculty Development program. This longitudinal career development program provides resources, information, and tools important for academic success to under-represented minority faculty.
Dr. Stan Sonu has been named the inaugural Director for Child Advocacy at CHOA. He will be the physician lead for the Health Law Partnership and the Strong4Life program.
Dr. Mark Spencer wrote an article for Inquest.org about Atlanta and Fulton County’s increasing carceral footprint and how political priorities that ignore economic and racial justice are affecting healthcare systems and their patients. Read the full article here.
Dr. Sara Turbow has been named program director for the Emory Public Health and General Preventive Medicine Residency and Fellowship Program. Dr. Turbow will be taking over the position from Dr. Richard Goodman, who has held the program director role since 2016.
Dr. Colin Washington has been named an Associate Program Director for the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency program. Dr. Washington joined the residency program’s leadership team led by Residency Program Director Reena Hemrajani, MD, on Sept. 1. Together, the residency leadership team helps guide the residency program's administrative, clinical, and educational oversight. Read more.
Dr. Tiffany Walker has been awarded an AHRQ U18 5-year ($5 million) center grant to develop "The Atlanta Long COVID Collaborative: A Multi-Health System Long COVID Coordinated Care Model Serving a Diverse Metropolitan Population" which she will lead as contact PI. Dr. Walker established the Atlanta Long COVID Collaborative. Read more here.
GIM Grady Section Retreat
The GIM Grady section held their annual faculty and staff retreat on September 26.
The following GIM Grady faculty were recognized during the 2022-2023 division awards ceremony:
Primary Care Clinician Educator: Dr. Jennifer Lom and Dr. Sarah Koumtouzoua
Annette Bernard Ambulatory Teaching Award: Dr. Anna Kho
Inpatient Teaching Award: Dr. Richard Pittman and Dr. Lorenzo DiFrancesco
Citizenship Award: Dr. Marshall Fleurant and Dr. Dylan Baker
High Five Award: Dr. Terry Jacobson and Dr. Stacy Higgins
Rising Star Award: Dr. Dheepa Sekar
Catalyst Award: Dr. Shelly-Ann Fluker
The research corner is a space to share research-related opportunities, tips, and more. Please email Dr. Saria Hassan with suggestions!
Launching GIM-Wide Monthly Research Meeting
Starting Thursday, October 19th at 12:30pm and on the third Thursday of the month moving forward! We will bring all GIM sections together to highlight exciting clinically-relevant research led by our own faculty. An opportunity to foster collaboration between sections and beyond. Specific skill-building activities of relevance to the academic advancement of all GIM faculty will be incorporated. Mark your calendars now: Oct 19th @ 12:30pm! Join Zoom Meeting.
Take it to the Finish Line!
Remember that paper that has just been sitting there, waiting for someone to take it to the finish line? This initiative offers opportunities for new faculty to get experience writing papers and collaborating with others, and established faculty get to finally publish that paper that has been collecting dust on the virtual shelf.
- If you have a paper you’d like to add to the “Take it to the Finish Line” repository please email saria.hassan@emory.edu.
- If you are a new faculty member looking for manuscript writing experience and would like to collaborate email saria.hassan@emory.edu.
We will pair up faculty thereafter.
Emory Clinic GIM Faculty:
Listening sessions – coming to a clinic near you!
We will be visiting Emory Clinic sites to talk to GIM Faculty to learn about your research-related interests and needs. This initiative hopes to address the unique needs of our outpatient clinic sites that are away from Emory’s main hospitals and academic hubs.
East Cobb: Tuesday, October 10th @ noon-1pm (lunch provided)
Decatur: Thursday, September 28th @ 7:15am
Please email saria.hassan@emory.edu if you’d like your clinic to be added to the list
(NB. VA faculty session is being arranged).
Highlight your research on digital displays in the new Health Services Research Building (HSRB-II)!
For instructions on how to share research on the digital displays of the building, please click here.
Current Emory-curated extramural and intramural
funding opportunities
For the latest funding opportunities, please click here.
Quick Citation Tip
Are you properly citing the DOM in your publications?
The Emory Department of Medicine places a strong emphasis on its broad and innovative research programs. Publications are an integral part of the research. To track departmental impact, we must cite affiliations correctly. Please cite Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, and your Division in all publications.
Department of Medicine publishes a weekly newsletter called What's UP in DOM Research. Subscribe by clicking HERE.
Collaborative Faculty Publications
Dr. Tamara Haynes and Dr. Stan Sonu published Primary Care Providers' Knowledge, Perceptions, and Practice of Trauma-Informed Care in a Public Health Care Setting.
Dr. David Roberts, Dr. Jennifer Zreloff, and Dr. Sharon Bergquist were collaborators on Efficacy and safety of azithromycin versus placebo to treat lower respiratory tract infections associated with low procalcitonin: a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, non-inferiority trial.
Dr. Francois Rollin and Dr. Shub Agrawal published It is the impact of racism, not race, that causes breast cancer inequities.
Dr. Francois Rollin and Dr. Jada Bussey-Jones published Antiracist Structural Intervention at the Emory University Institutional Review Board
Dr. Francois Rollin, Dr. Colin Washington, and Dr. Shelly-Ann Fluker published Using race as a social construct when looking at differences in racial associations between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Tiffany Walker, Dr. Ted Johnson, and Dr. Blake Anderson published Use of Natural Language Processing of Patient-Initiated Electronic Health Record Messages to Identify Patients With COVID-19 Infection.
Featured publication: Dr. Tiffany Walker: Chronic inflammation, neutrophil activity, and autoreactivity splits long COVID. Long COVID may affect as many as 30 million individuals in the U.S. alone, including those who experienced mild antecedent COVID-19 infections. Many Long COVID patients experience significant reduction in quality of life and function, impacting their ability to return to work. Symptoms are often multisystemic and vague, making diagnosis difficult. Because of this, knowledge and acceptance of Long COVID remains limited amongst clinicians, and stigmatization and lack of validation leads to significant strain on patient-provider alliances. The underlying pathophysiology remains unclear, and there are currently no drugs effective against long COVID. In our study we demonstrate unique immunologic signatures specific to Long COVID compared with COVID-19-recovered patients, promoting credence of Long COVID validity in the clinical community. Pathways defined from this study provide insight into biomarkers that may be used for diagnosis/monitoring and pathways that may be targeted for treatment, driving drug selection for clinical trials.
Dr. Bhavin Adhyaru:
Push notifications for critical labs results: a pilot study in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Dr. Blake Anderson:
Metformin reduces SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase 3 Randomized Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial
Dr. Lauren Gensler:
Antipsychotics and Medical Comorbidity: A Retrospective Study in an Urban Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic.
Dr. Katie Gielissen:
A Qualitative Study of Drivers for Use of the Primary Care Exception Among Internal Medicine Teaching Faculty.
Medical Educator as Game Master: What Dungeons & Dragons Can Teach Us About Small Group Learning.
Dr. Saria Hassan:
National Changes in Diabetes Care Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prospective Study of US Adults.
Disparities in diabetes prevalence and management by race and ethnicity in the USA: defining a path forward.
Dr. Tracey Henry:
Can AI Mitigate Bias in Writing Letters of Recommendation?
Making mentoring more impactful for URiM students.
Maintaining Medicaid makes Georgia healthier
Dr. Meredith Lora:
Pre-exposure prophylaxis adherence and discontinuation at an urban pre-exposure prophylaxis program in Atlanta, Georgia
Dr. Marie McKinnon:
Evaluation of Faculty Parental Leave Policies at Medical Schools Ranked by US News & World Report in 2020.
Dr. Emily Pinto-Taylor:
Homeless Should Not Mean Hopeless: How Housing Insecurity Impacts Pain Management in Palliative Care Patients
Dr. Francois Rollin:
We must be clear that the root cause of racial disparities in Alzheimer's disease is racism.
Dr. Michael Saenger:
Empower Veterans Program (EVP): a chronic pain management program demonstrates positive outcomes among veterans.
Dr. Stacie Schmidt:
Participation in the Georgia Food for Health program and cardiovascular disease risk factors: A longitudinal observational study.
Addressing Health-Related Social Needs in the Clinical, Community, and Policy Domains.
Dr. Jason Schneider:
HIV incidence and mortality in transgender women in the eastern and southern USA: a multisite cohort study.
Dr. Melissa Stevens:
Use of a Medication Safety Audit and Feedback Tool in the Emergency Department Is Affected by Prescribing Characteristics.
Dr. Mehul Tejani:
Cognitively Based Compassion Training for HIV Immune Nonresponders-An Attention-Placebo Randomized Controlled Trial.
Improving Health Care Systems' Publicly Available Plans to Address Climate Change.
Dr. Sara Turbow:
Association of Fragmented Readmissions and Electronic Information Sharing With Discharge Destination Among Older Adults.
Dr. Tracy Vettese:
HIV and HCV testing at clinical encounters among people who inject drugs, 2013-2018-Opportunities for increased testing and prevention.
Dr. Tiffany Walker:
Development of a Definition of Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.
Mild antecedent COVID-19 associated with symptom-specific post-acute sequelae
Grady sponsors a monthly Primary Care Grand Rounds webinar for Primary Care Physicians and APPs. Participants who complete and return the evaluation form will get 1 hour CME credit.
- October: Telemedicine and how to do
effective video visits
Aiyana Cottman/ Dr. Aerica Summers - Nov.: Safe use of anticoagulants
Dr. Mikhail Y. Akbashev/ Alyssa Utz
Click HERE to join the monthly webinar every first Wednesday at noon.
Click HERE for recordings of previous sessions.
