Welcome from Monica Newton, DO, MPH, FAAFP
Welcome to Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) Family Medicine Residency program. I wanted to personally thank you for considering NGMC as your home for residency.
These are very exciting times for us at NGMC. We were thrilled to graduate our first class of family medicine residents, and several more are on their way to board certification. We’re very proud to share that we are starting off with a 100% board passage rate for our first cohort of Family Medicine resident rock stars!
I am honored and humbled to be selected to build the Family Medicine Residency program as the founding program director. As Jim Collins says, our Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) is to change the course of health care for our region, state and world, by producing exceptionally trained family physicians – we are well on our way.
With graduates venturing out to rural areas – in Georgia and as far as Washington state – they are proving that full scope training can be had and prepare you for even the most challenging practice of the future.
It is part of our culture to strive for excellence and never stop learning. It’s this culture of learning and the growth mindset that can’t be manufactured – it sets us apart. A culture that says we should start here at home, but it doesn’t end here, we can change our world. As evidence of this, so far, our residents and faculty have done international trips to Honduras, India, Vietnam, and have plans to go to Africa as well.
Like you, I had a choice about where to come to work, live and receive care. I chose NGMC because I believed this health system was a principle-centered organization with teams of people equipped to help patients become healthier. This approach ultimately makes our community a better place to live – which is our mission – “to improve the health of our community in all we do.”
Our residency program seeks to equip resident physicians who, through servant leadership, will provide comprehensive care, display respectful compassion, develop a passion for excellence, practice responsible stewardship, and live and breathe interdependence. It is this dedication to leadership, value, team and pursuit of excellence that make us different.
It is not just our mission and values that makes this a great place. It is also the amazing faculty who have over 150 years of combined clinical experience. Our faculty have practiced in rural Georgia and rural Africa. They have received teaching honors such as “Georgia Family Physician Educator of the Year” and “Best of the Best” from AU-UGA partnership. They have been “Georgia Family Physician of the Year” and received the Hardman Cup from the Medical Association of Georgia for substantial contributions to Public Health. They have thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and seen the Buddhas of Bamyan, Afghanistan. They are diverse women and men who have a passion for teaching – family medicine taught by family doctors.
Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Truly, our legacy of building upon the collective knowledge and experience of others will help you achieve your personal and professional goals here at NGMC.
We are so glad that you are interested in pursuing your Family Medicine training at NGMC. We hope through exploring this opportunity, you too will see the potential that can be unlocked through becoming part of the NGMC Family Medicine Residency program.
Sincerely,
Monica Newton, DO, MPH, FAAFP
Program Director
Chair, Primary and Urgent Care for Northeast Georgia Physician Group