Winter Spring 2010

Dear Readers,

An anniversary is generally something you don’t want to miss. Whether it marks a historical event, a major milestone or your own wedding, an anniversary is a special opportunity to let us each take pause and reflect on where we have been – and look forward to where we are going.

It was fortunate, then, that Dr. Bernard L. Maria happened to notice this year marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Wilhenford Children’s Hospital. As a fairly new member to the MCG team —he was named chair of the Department of Pediatrics last summer —such a milestone could have gone uncelebrated.

And what a milestone it is. Today, stand-alone children’s hospitals number above 200. But when the Wilhenford was constructed on what would become MCG’s modern campus, such specialized hospitals could be found only in the nation’s largest cities. Not even Atlanta could claim such a facility.

MCG remains ahead of the national curve in children’s health care as evidenced by the numerous accolades heaped on its Children’s Medical Center, which was recently ranked No. 1 in pediatric quality and safety by the University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of 103 academic medical centers and 219 affiliated hospitals. Factor in the clinical research missions of the Georgia Prevention Institute and the newly created Child Health Discovery Institute, and you have an enterprise well equipped to take on illness and disease in the state’s littlest residents.

The story of MCG’s heritage in pediatric medicine occupies many pages in this edition of MCG Today, and deservedly so. I hope it is as enjoyable for you to read as it was for our staff to write.

Of course, you’ll also want to learn about how your state health sciences university is expanding its educational assets to meet future health care needs through one of the largest construction projects in the institution’s 182-year history. You’ll also be interested to see how we are developing a culturally competent workforce through a unique partnership with an inner-city clinic that treats some of Georgia’s neediest.

Because this magazine captures only a fraction of the dividends we yield for the state, we would invite you to learn more by going to www.mcg.edu. In doing so, we hope you will find us to be worthy of our tagline: Good for Georgia. Good for You.

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