Middle Georgia patients who need pre- and post-kidney transplant care soon will not have far to go.
Mercer University’s School of Medicine and its clinical component, Mercer Medicine, are teaming with Piedmont Healthcare of Atlanta to open an organ transplant satellite clinic in Macon, according to a news release.
Set to open April 17, the satellite clinic will be located in the Mercer Medicine Internal Medicine Clinic at 707 Pine St.
The accessibility of a satellite clinic in Macon could be a life saver for patients currently undergoing dialysis, as well as people close to needing dialysis in Middle Georgia, said Dr. Ajay Srivastava, a Mercer Medicine nephrologist and assistant professor and chief of the nephrology division for the Mercer School of Medicine.
Some midstate dialysis patients, because of financial and transportation issues, can’t make the drive to Atlanta periodically for evaluation, Srivastava said, so the Macon clinic could be a lifesaver.
Transplantation is not just a surgical procedure, Dr. Mark Johnson, transplant surgeon and program director of the Piedmont Transplant Institute in Atlanta, said in the release.
“Our patients need to be evaluated by a specialist prior to receiving a transplant,” Johnson said. “Following the surgery, they require long-term follow-up care due to the risk of organ rejection.”
Patients are not the only ones who will benefit from the partnership.
The collaboration also will create training fellowships in infectious disease and nephrology for future Mercer medical residents.
“These new fellowships will expand subspecialty training for our medical students and, ultimately, elevate the caliber of physicians the Mercer School of Medicine graduates into Georgia’s communities,” Srivastava said.
Mercer University School of Medicine has three medical school campuses, including the Macon campus that was founded in 1982. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the school’s primary teaching hospitals, including The Medical Center of Central Georgia.
To contact writer Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223.
