Georgia South Matches with New Residents for Sixth Class

MOULTRIE, Ga. – Georgia South Family Medicine Residency program is pleased to announce it has matched its sixth class of family medicine residents. The class of 2024 includes Dr. Catherine Cravey, Dr. Nathan Greene, Dr. Leo Larios, and Dr. Daniel Santiago.

In a residency program, “matching” means the doctors that Georgia South selected also selected Georgia South. These four residents were chosen out of a pool of 673 total applicants.

Honoring the program’s long-standing commitment, the new residents all have ties to the state of Georgia, including Cravey joining the class from her hometown in Hawkinsville, Georgia, and Greene joining from Americus, Georgia.

The Georgia South Family Medicine Residency program launched its first class in 2016 as part of an effort to help meet the Governor and General Assembly’s challenge to build physician workforce capacity in rural areas of Georgia.

Georgia South has been successful in attracting top Georgia talent to the program, and three of its six graduates are now practicing medicine in Colquitt County. These include Dr. Jessica Brumfield-Mitchum, Dr. Michael Magat, and Dr. Catie Duskin.

The development of graduate medical education (residency) programs has also created a multiplier effect in other ways. The new residency drew the attention of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and created over 250 new training experiences for medical students.

“Developing a residency program was an effort to meet the community need for access to primary care in 2012,” said Colquitt Regional President and CEO Jim Matney. “We knew our medical staff supported the program and we also anticipated we would be able to retain great doctors. We are also grateful that pursuing graduate medical education has brought a great partnership with PCOM to our community. In doing so, we have guaranteed a steady physician pipeline for generations to come in Southwest Georgia.”

The new class of family medicine residents will begin their rotations in summer 2021. A formal ceremony will be held later this summer to officially welcome the new residents.

Each year, graduating medical students across the nation apply for admittance into residency programs. This is a very in-depth process that involves multiple interviews. Towards the end, each candidate and program rank their top choices, and on Match Day, it is revealed which candidates matched with which programs.

“During the process, we are interviewing potential residents and they are interviewing us,” said Georgia South Program Director Dr. Kirby Smith. “What’s significant is that we were able to ‘match’ all four of our available positions, and the residents that we were most interested in were also interested in us. I am so proud of our team who made this happen, especially in light of the challenges that COVID-19 presented to the application process.”

The Family Medicine Residency has also opened the pathway for a new residency program in psychiatry, starting July 2022. For more information, please click here to contact us.

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Pictured top left: Dr. Catherine Cravey; top right: Dr. Nathan Greene; bottom left: Dr. Leo Larios; bottom right: Daniel Santiago.