Exhibit honors Dr. Hames
by Jennifer Hilliard
The Greenblatt Library will open an exhibit next month in honor of an MCG graduate whose research on cardiovascular disease revolutionized health care.
The opening ceremony for the Curtis G. Hames Sr., M.D. Exhibit and Manuscript Collection will be Friday, Feb. 9 at 3:30 p.m. in the library’s second-floor Historical Collections and Archives Room. A companion display permanently housed in the Department of Family Medicine will also be available for viewing.
The late Dr. Hames graduated from MCG in 1944 and practiced in his rural hometown, Claxton, Ga., for more than 40 years.
“His commitment to patients led to an excellent rapport with his community, where he saw as many as 50 patients per day,” says Dr. Joseph Hobbs, chair of the Department of Family Medicine and vice dean for primary care and community affairs in the School of Medicine.
While treating patients, Dr. Hames observed higher-than-normal rates of stroke and heart disease. His black patients, who had the highest rates of hypertension, had lower rates of coronary artery disease than his white patients.
His observations led to the historic Evans County Heart Study, the first National Institutes of Health-sponsored epidemiological project to evaluate the incidence and causes of cardiovascular disease in the population of a racially diverse community. The resulting database has been used nationally and internationally to evaluate problems such as urban and rural differences in cardiovascular disease in blacks, cardiovascular disease and genetics, and the effects of socioeconomic status on the death rates in blacks with hypertension.
Even though his research brought him international acclaim, Dr. Hames still considered himself a small-town physician who was, above all, dedicated to his patients.
“His personal creed during his medical career was that a true physician should bring to the suffering patient a quiet sense of humility, dignity, confidence and security based on the conviction that all that can be done will be done,” said Dr. Hobbs, who holds the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians J.W. Tollison, M.D., Distinguished Chair of Family Medicine.
Dr. Hames was also a humanitarian.
In 1984, he was named a fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He donated portions of the associated grant award to MCG and Georgia Southern University to advance the education of future health care professionals. He also was a founding board member of the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network, a practice-based research network for the United States and Canada.
In 1981, the Hames Research Chair of Family Medicine was established in his honor. The endowment provides research funds to train family physicians and support family medicine faculty research. The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine also awards the annual Curtis G. Hames Research Award, honoring an individual whose academic career exemplifies dedication to research in family medicine.
For more information about the exhibit opening, contact the Department of Family Medicine at ext. 1-3159.