We are excited to introduce Monica Newton, DO, MPH, chair of Primary and Urgent Care for Northeast Georgia Physicians Group, as the program director for the newly ACGME accredited NGMC Family Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Newton will work closely with John Delzell, Jr., MD, MSPH, vice president of Medical Education for Northeast Georgia Health System and Designated Institutional Official for Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC), and the entire GME administrative team in preparation for welcoming our inaugural Family Medicine residents in summer of 2020.
“Through the accreditation process we have grown together as a faculty, said Dr. Newton. “It has been a great exercise for further developing our department’s growth mindset. We are constantly creating a structure and building on it.”
In her role as Family Medicine Residency Program director she will be responsible for overseeing the curriculum, evaluating residents and faculty and setting the vision for the program.
“We are so lucky to have Dr. Newton join our GME team,” said Dr. Delzell. “Her experience as chair of Primary and Urgent Care gives her amazing insight into how a practice can continually improve in order to provide the best care for all patients at all times.”
Dr. Newton’s short-term goals for the NGMC Family Medicine Residency Program include:
- Develop Family Medicine faculty that are innovative and committed to scholarly activity
- Solidify curricular components and rotations
- Master consensus in evaluating resident performance
- Increase exposure to family medicine students through fairs, workshops and rotations
Long term, she hopes to provide additional training opportunities for residents who want to pursue global health, rural medicine or community health fields and hopes the program will offer a rural track or global health elective. She also wants to encourage all NGMC Family Medicine faculty to present at a national conference or serve on a national committee.
Prior to joining Northeast Georgia Physicians Group, Dr. Newton spent 11 years as an associate professor of medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Selma Family Medicine Residency Program. She received her undergraduate degree from Auburn University, completed medical school at Midwestern University in Chicago and completed her Family Medicine residency training and a Master of Public Health in International Health degree at UAB. She completed a fellowship in obstetrics at UAB and a faculty fellowship in underserved medicine through the University of California San Diego. In 2017, Dr. Newton completed a Graduate Certificate in Population Health from Thomas Jefferson University.
Dr. Newton is married to
As one of ten children, Dr. Newton moved back to Northeast Georgia to be closer to her aging mother and five of her siblings. She loves the medical community here and loves the community at large because of the incredible educational opportunities, the arts and a thriving downtown.
“There is a level of collegiality here that doesn’t exist everywhere,” said Dr. Newton. “I am thrilled to have landed at NGMC.”