News from Divisions & Programs

Family Medicine

Susana Alfonso MD, MHCM has been named one of Atlanta's Top Docs for 2017. Dr. Alfonso is based at Emory Family Medicine at Dunwoody. Congratulations, Dr. Alfonso!

In honor of National Doctors' Day on March 30th, the Emory Medicine Recognition Committee of the School of Medicine sent out a call for nominations to recognize School of Medicine doctors who go above and beyond. Congratulations to Megha Shah, MD, MSc and  José M. Villalón-Gómez, MD, MPH who were among those chosen to exemplify the outstanding faculty at Emory School of Medicine. View the entire list and see quotes from the nomination materials here.

Emory Family Medicine was well-represented at the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians meeting in October and our faculty and residents dominated the poster competition:

·         Practicing Physician/Fellow Category Winner: Alzheimer’s Disease Mortality is High in Rural Areas in Southern US: Trends from 1999 to 2015. Author: Ambar Kulshreshtha, MD, PhD, Ihab Hajjar, MD, MPH, Theodore M. Johnson II, MD, MPH – Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

·         Resident Category Winner: Survey of Primary Care Providers Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Related to Adult ADHD. Author/Presenter: Gayle Wong MD; Ambar Kulshreshtha MD PhD; Tony Bullon MD; Andiran Nambi MSIE; Natalia Loskutova, MD, PhD - Emory University Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, Dunwoody, GA. Advisor/Coordinator/Contributor: Ambar Kulshrestha, MD, PhD.

·         2nd place – Transverse Myelitis as cause of Acute Low Back Pain in the Primary Care Setting – Priya Gulati, MD

·         3rd place (tie) – The Utility of Human Electroencephalograms to Determine the Nicotine Thresholds for Regulation of Tobacco Products to Improve Public Health – Eunice Neeley, MD and Ethical Dilemmas in the Care of Hospitalized Patients with Mental Illness in Georgia: A Case Report – Maliha Beg, MD

Family Medicine - Residency Program

Match Day 2018 was a great success for the Family Medicine Residency Program. All 10 slots were filled and we're delighted to keep stellar Emory Medical student Sarah Dupont here in our program!

The Community Engagement Manual has been revised. If you have not yet received a copy, please contact Oguchi Nwosu, MD or Tammi Teeters-Dade. 

Family Medicine - Student Programs

In November, the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) had their first ever Leadership Retreat! The evening started at Mastermind Escape Games where both teams were able to successfully escape each room! We ended the night with a well-deserved dinner where Emily Herndon, MD and Porsha Clayton, MSM wished our 2016 - 2017 leaders farewell and welcomed Liz Mensah, Sherman Jones, and Mark Jedrzejczak as the 2017 – 2018 FMIG Leaders. They would also like to thank Lianne Beck, MD and José Villalón-Gómez, MD, MPH for helping to advocate continued resident and faculty involvement in FMIG events. Because of this advocacy, Aparna Mark, MD and Kim Le, MD have volunteered to be our bridge between the students and residency program. 

Emory was well-represented at the 2018 Society of Teachers in Family Medicine Medical Student Education conference in Austin TX in February.  Porsha Clayton, MSM and colleagues from the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Georgia presented on How Can I Help? Strategies to Increase Community and Faculty Engagement.  Also in attendance were Dr. Emily Herndon, MD, Director of Student Programs, Kommerina Daling, MD, a community preceptor for the Adult Primary Care Clerkship and former resident from Emory Family Medicine, Kim Le, MD, current faculty member at OFW, Patricia Woodard, MBA, MS, Business Manager, Programs, John Diehl and Sarah Dupont, Emory medical students.

Also in February, the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) partnered with the Family Medicine Residency Program to host a Procedure Workshop focused on Blood Draws and IV insertions. 30 students signed up to participate! Afterwards, there was a networking session in which first and second year medical students spoke candidly with residents about the specialty of Family Medicine and applying to residency programs. The event was a great success!

The 5th Annual FMIG Meet and Greet was held at the home of Emily Herndon, MD in April. We celebrated the Emory M4s who’ve matched in Family Medicine. This year we had four students choose Family Medicine as their specialty of choice: Sarah Dupont – Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; Samantha Lammie – University of Cincinnati (Psychiatry/Family Medicine), Cincinnati, OH; Madison Paul – Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (Military Match), Fort Belvoir, VA; and Tiffany Wang – Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA.

The Adult Primary Care Clerkship’s 3rd Annual Spring Bash was held on Saturday, April 14th at Jumpstreet Trampoline Park in Lawrenceville. Each year, we show our appreciation to our preceptors and their families by hosting a day of family friendly fun. This event is funded by the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, but includes both Family Medicine and Internal Medicine physicians. Our preceptors are very important as our clerkship would not be a success without these wonderful teachers. At Jumpstreet, we held a faculty development on the topic of Good Formative Feedback and afterwards participated in a dodgeball tournament. Other fun activities included Segway Outback and riding the wild mechanical bull. Thank you to all who were able to join us and we hope to see more of you there next year!

Congratulations to Sarah Dupont and John Diehl (pictured below) for winning a blue ribbon on their poster presentation at the 2018 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Medical Student Education (STFM MSE) Conference. Their poster is titled Interdisciplinary Service Learning Collaboration for Medical Professional Students in the Setting of South Georgia Migrant Farmworkers.

PA Program 

In honor of National Farmworker Awareness Week (March 24th-31st), first year PA students, faculty, and staff  assembled close to 1,000 personal care kits for distribution to migrant and seasonal farmworkers during the upcoming South Georgia Farmworker Health Project (SGFHP) which will take place June 9th-21st.  Each farmworker patient will receive assorted toiletry items, a dental hygiene kit, new pair of work gloves, protective eyewear, and several pair of new cotton socks as well as a food box filled with rice, beans, mesa (corn flour) and cooking oil.  Farmworkers and their families will be able to select clothing and footwear from an amazing selection made possible by SGFHP volunteer Lisa Powell and faculty member Karen Newell, MMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA.  Through partnerships with the Emory Glenn Preschool and the Central Congregational United Church of Christ, children’s clothing, shoes, and books will also be donated to migrant families. Now in its 23rd year, the SGFHP has grown into an exemplar of interprofessional training and collaboration, providing free medical and dental care to over 1,500 migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families. Want to help? Look for a collection box in the Dunwoody Conference Room, DFPM Wesley Woods office, OMESA office, or in the PA Program offices to donate packages of men’s cotton crew socks (size Medium), children’s books or travel-sized toiletry items. 

In November 2017, the Physician Assistant Program joined the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory Healthcare, Emory School of Medicine, and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing to co-host the 2nd Interprofessional Simulation Conference. Over 100 participants from multiple healthcare disciplines attended lectures and poster presentations and participated in hands-on group activities covering key aspects of interprofessional simulation.

The Physician Assistant Program had a fantastic PA week in October! Events included: Red Cross Blood Drive, Be the Match Donor Drive, mixer with Mercer and PCOM PA students at the Orpheus Brewery, Good Samaritan hygiene drive, and lunch in honor of the 50th anniversary of the PA profession. Donations were also collected for a PA colleague's family affected by the 2017 hurricanes. 

Maha Lund DHSC, PA-C, Program Director and Division Chief for the Physician Assistant Program, graduated from the Woodruff Leadership Academy in April 2018. The WLA combines a program of classroom sessions, off-site team projects, and weekend retreats to motivate professionals and managers within the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center to develop, exercise, and strengthen individual leadership potential. Congratulations!

Jonie Fawley MPAS, PA-C, was accepted as a fellow into the inaugural Woodruff Health Educators Academy, a 20 month long fellowship encouraging interdisciplinary educational scholarship at Emory. Maha Lund DHSC, PA-C and Jodie Guest, PhD, MPH both serve on the steering committee for WHEA. 

Jodie Guest, PhD, MPH has been named chair of the Shepard Award Committee at Rollins. This committee reviews and awards the top two theses for each department and the top thesis from Rollins for the year to a graduating masters student. Dr. Guest was also an invited moderator at the 22nd International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases in Fuengirola, Spain in March. She moderated the Hepatitis and Comorbidities section. Additionally, she presented “Modifiable risk factors for HIV suppression in MSM in Atlanta, GA: data from Engagement, a PRISM Health Cohort” at this conference. 

 Erin Lepp PA-C, MMSc has been appointed to the Georgia Department of Public Health's State Office of Rural Health and will be serving as a Board Member on their Farmworker Health Program Advisory Board.  She will join in monthly oversight meetings to advise the executives and clinicians that operate the six migrant health centers across Georgia to ensure that the clinic's are providing the highest quality care and operating in accordance to the federal guidelines that provide their funding.  

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Good Samaritan Health Center in downtown Atlanta, PA students in the  class of 2017 donated $2,500.00 to help fund Good Sam’s new homeless clinic. The class gift will help fund the Center’s new homeless clinic initiative that provides a patient-centered medical visit to approximately 60 homeless patients each month. Patients are transported to Good Sam from over 30 homeless and transitional shelters across metro Atlanta and spend an entire day at Good Sam receiving comprehensive medical and dental care, metal health assessment and counseling, patient education, and nutrition support.  In summer months, patients will also leave their visit with fresh produce grown on-site in the Good Sam Urban Farm.

The Emory PA Program has a long history of serving patients at the Good Sam patient-centered medical home (PCMH) clinic. Through a unique academic-community partnership, PA student-clinicians spend one Saturday per month managing an entire outpatient medical appointment under the guidance of dedicated physician preceptors in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, including Susana Alfonso MD, MHCM, Emily Herndon MD, Kim Le MD and Oguchi Nwosu MD.  The student-run clinic model first piloted by Emory PA students has been so successful in helping expand the Center’s ability to accept new patients that administrators extended the model to include medical students from both Emory and Morehouse and most recently, students and faculty from Emory’s Doctorate Physical Therapy (DPT) Program.

Want to be a part of this outreach?  This service-learning opportunity is a great way for faculty to demonstrate teaching and service effort.   If interested, please contact Erin Lepp, PA-C, Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Projects for the PA Program at elepp@emory.edu or via cell (770) 608-4590.      

(Pictured below: Emory's PA Program students)

Preventive Medicine

Late-breaking news: Congratulations to the Preventive Medicine Residency Program (PMRP) for being awarded a $2M 5-year HRSA grant to fund “Increasing the Size and Capabilities of the U.S. Preventive Medicine Workforce.”  Funding for this program will support an increase in the number of residents trained, scope and breadth of the training curriculum, and other enhancements to Emory’s training of preventive medicine residents. The PMRP is working now to make modifications to the training curriculum and schedules for the four incoming residents (see below) who will begin in July, and have been in contact with many of you regarding scheduling.  In addition, they are beginning preparation for recruitment and selection of two additional new residents for July 2019. 

Match Day 2018 was a great success for the PMRP. On July 1, Emory PMRP will be welcoming a distinguished group of four new residents: 

·         Amelia Muñiz-Hernandez, MD – Magna Cum Laude graduate of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, Dominican Republic.  Board-certified in Pediatrics, Amelia completed a Pediatrics Residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Elmhurst) in 2017 and currently serves as Chief Resident of that program.

·         Farah Kudrath, MD, MPH – Graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, the Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health.  Farah currently is completing a Preliminary Year internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

·         Caileigh McKenna, MD – Graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned the academic honor of high distinction, and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  Caileigh has completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago.

·         Major Kimberly McKinney, MD – Graduate of Cornell University and the Uniformed Services University of Health Science.  An active duty officer in the U.S. Air Force and board certified in pediatrics, Kimberly holds the rank of Major and has served as a staff pediatrician since 2011, and now also serves as Outpatient Medical Director and Deputy Flight Commander of Travis Pediatric Clinic, Travis AFB, California.

At the same time, EMory PMRP will be bidding farewell to two excellent residents,  both of whom will be remaining here in Atlanta:  Daniel Graciaa, MD, MPH (board certified in Internal Medicine, headed next to an Infectious Disease Fellowship here at Emory); and Elizabeth Rabold, MD, MPH Candidate (board certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics) who is headed next to CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service Program.  Congratulations to both Daniel and Elizabeth!

In short order, Mary Davis, MPH, PMRP Coordinator, will contact many of you regarding scheduling of resident rotations for July 2018 – June 2019 at Emory, the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and other partner organizations.  

Research 

Learn about predatory journal publishing on the SOM website. Do you receive emails every day inviting you to become a member of an editorial board? Are you unsure how to choose a legitimate journal in which to publish your research? Together with the Office of General Counsel and the Office of Scholarly Communications, the SOM has created guidance on how to identify predatory publishers. Read more.

Grants

Ambar Kulshreshtha, MD PhD is the recipient of a new Alzheimer's Association International Research Grant. African Americans have a higher risk of developing Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease compared with Whites. The proposed study will assess the feasibility and acceptability of a Cognitive Behavior Therapy Intervention among African American patients with MCI using a 3-arm randomized controlled trial. Study collaborators include: Ashley Owen, PhD, Alvaro Alonso MD, PhD (from Rollins School of Public Health) and Ted Johnson, MD, MPH and will be piloted at Emory Family Medicine at Dunwoody.

As part of the grant awarded from the Georgia Healthy Family Alliance, Ambar Kulshreshtha, MD PhD led more than 10 community events in places such as local churches, and community centers. About the SIMPACT project: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death and disability in Georgia, accounting for more than 30% of all deaths. Georgia is also part of the “stroke belt” with stroke mortality 17% higher than the rest of the United States. Despite this, more than one third of adults in Georgia do not know the modifiable risk factors for CVD. The goal of the project was to improve knowledge of CVD risk factors and warning signs for heart attack and stroke. Thanks to Emory Family Medicine residents, staff and faculty, we had an outreach to more than 300 under-served people in Georgia with these events. 

Megha Shah, MD was awarded a KL2-Mentored Clinical Research Scholar award to provide research funding and protected time to develop a pilot community-driven diabetes self-management programs tailored for South Asians. The award period started March 1, 2018. See a photo of Dr. Shah and her staff at a community clinic in Lilburn below in the Clinical Highlights section.

The Georgia Department of Human Services awarded over $4M to the Georgia Alzheimer's Project to  incorporate a statewide plan for training in dementia screening coupled with opportunities for multi-level, longitudinal assessment of practice change outcomes. Trainings will emphasize the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Annual Wellness Visit screening in primary care settings as one entrée to a network of regional Memory Assessment Clinics across Georgia. Department faculty who are involved in the Georgia Alzheimer's Project include: Ted Johnson, MD, MPH and Miranda Moore, PhD.

Recent Publications

Pettit AC, Giganti MJ, Ingle SM, May MT, Shepherd BE, Gill MJ, Fätkenheuer G, Abgrall S, Saag MS, Del Amo J, Justice AC, Miro JM, Cavasinni M, Dabis F, Monforte AD, Reiss P, Guest JL, Moore D, Shepherd L, Obel N, Crane HM, Smith C, Teira R, Zangerle R, Sterne JA, Sterling TR; Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration (ART-CC) investigators. Increased non-AIDS mortality among persons with AIDS-defining events after antiretroviral therapy initiation. J Int AIDS Soc. 2018.

Jones J, Guest JL, Sullivan PS, Kramer M, Jenness S, Sales JM. Concordance between monetary and sexual delay discounting in men who have sex with men. Sex Health 2017 Dec 7. 

Jones J, Guest JL, Sullivan PS, Sales JM, Jenness SM, Kramer MR. The association between monetary and sexual delay discounting and risk sexual behavior in an online sample of men who have sex with men. AIDS Care 2018 Feb 4. 

And the following paper by JL Guest is in press at AIDS: "Long-term trends in CD4 cell counts, CD8 cell counts, and the CD4:CD8 ratio: ART Cohort Collaboration (ART-CC) Study.”

Ambar Kulshreshtha, MD, PhD is  co-author of a new study published in JAMA Neurology - Association of JNC-8 and SPRINT systolic blood pressure levels with cognitive function and related racial disparity"  The association between high blood pressure and risk of cognitive decline is well known. But the ideal SBP for older adults is less clear with recommended targets ranging from 120-150 mm Hg. The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term effects of the various SBP targets and to determine if racial differences exist in their impact cognition. The study shows that in hypertensive subjects age 70 or older, a SPRINT SBP target of <120 was not associated with worsening cognitive function overtime, and it may be superior to the JNC-8 target for cognition. Lower SBP treatment targets are likely to be more impactful in African American hypertensive individuals. Thus for seniors and particularly African Americans a lower blood pressure target may prevent cognitive decline. Dr. Ihab Hajjar in the Emory Department of Neurology and Geriatrics is the main investigator of the study. 

Jetty A, Moore MA, Coffman M, Petterson S, Bazemore A. Rural family physicians’ are twice as likely to use telehealth as urban family physicians. Telemed J E Health. 2017 Aug 14.

Moore MA, Goodman RA. Physician training in cancer prevention and control: A population health imperative. Am J Prev Med. 2018 Mar;54(3):444-448.

Kaselitz E; Shah MK; Choi H; Heisler M.  Peer Characteristics Associated with Improved Glycemic Control in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Reciprocal Peer Support Program for Diabetes. Chronic Illness. Jan 2018

Villalón-Gómez JM. Pityriasis Rosea: Diagnosis and Treatment. Am Fam Physician 2018 Jan 1; 97(1): 38-44.

Clinical Highlights

Staff Appreciation Luncheon – January 2018

The Staff Appreciation Luncheon was held in January to provide staff development and reward the efforts of the staff at Emory Family Medicine at Dunwoody. The staff participated in a 30 minute presentation on effectively teaching all the types of learners that rotate through the clinic. After which they split into team and played FPM Trivia to learn more about the department in the University aspect and reinforce Emory Healthcare policies that they already follow. Three staff members Preze Reese, Ayres Ford, and Brenda Tolbert were recognized as MVPs as voted on by their peers, faculty, residents, and medical student learners. Pictured below (back row, l to r) Tawaiian Rhodes, Dionne Williams, Annette Matadi, Ayres Ford, Lina Mieles Elliot; (front) Preze Reese.

Welcome to New Faculty 

Decatur, and was the Medical Director at Georgia State University Student Health Clinic.. In addition, she is serving as Treasurer of the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians Board. Dr. Rabinovitz’s practice interests include College Health, Women’s Health, Adolescent Medicine, Mood Disorders, Preventative Medicine, and Travel Medicine.  Outside of the office, she enjoys time with her two teenage children, spending time outdoors, and exercising (especially Zumba).  Welcome to Emory, Dr. Rabinovitz!

Administrative Staff News

Upcoming Conferences, Meetings, and Events

Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Spring Conference, May 5-9, 2018 - Washington DC

Association of American Medical Colleges 

Georgia Academy of Family Physicians