Research

Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s Office of Research is responsible for overseeing the quality, scientific integrity, academic impact, regulatory compliance and financial responsibility of clinical human subject research conducted at our hospital campuses. 

Research at NGMC offers patients and nationally recognized physicians the opportunity to improve the health of our community and beyond.

Our Mission

The mission of the Office of Research at Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) is to support, oversee, and serve as the organizational home for all clinical research conducted within the NGHS system. Our physicians serve as principal investigators on a number of cutting-edge clinical research studies that have the potential to impact standard of care and to improve the care that patients receive.  Through our high patient enrollments and high-impact study participation, research at NGMC offers patients and nationally recognized physicians the opportunity to improve the health of our community and beyond.

Areas of Research

Feel free to explore our areas of clinical research using the links below:

COVID-19 Clinical Research Updates

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) provides outstanding care to patients in our community. NGHS actively supports research that provides cutting-edge treatment options as new therapies become available and seeks to answer important questions surrounding COVID-19 and its impact on the physical and psychological health of our patients, staff, and community members. Please see a list below outlining several research studies and clinical trials that address key issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

National Clinical Trials
Active Research Studies
  • Does Providing Live Therapeutic Music Decrease Stress for Clinicians Working in COVID-19 Critical Care Units?
    PI – Cheryl Bittel, MSN, RN
  • How COVID-19 Affects the Boston Scientific HeartLogicTM Heart Failure Diagnostic Parameters in Patients with Heart Failure
    PI – Ugochukwu Egolum MD
  • COVID-19 Perinatal Population Surveillance
    PIs – Cynthia Cabrera, MD, Wendy Coto-Puckett,MD, Bridgette Schulman, MSN-Ed, RN
  • National Registry for Surveillance and Epidemiology of Perinatal COVID-19 Infection
    PI – Bridgette Schulman, MSN-Ed, RN
  • Role of Tocilizumab on Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients
    PI – Gagan Kumar, MD
  • Developing a Registry of COVID-19 Patients Who are Admitted to Hospitals
    PI – Gagan Kumar, MD
  • Emergency Use of Remdesivir
    Erine Raybon-Rojas, MD, Barry Barns, PharmD
Publications

Chow JH, Khanna AK, Kethireddy S, et al. Aspirin use is associated with decreased mechanical ventilation, ICU admission, and in-hospital mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19Anesth Analg. 2020;10.1213/ANE.0000000000005292. doi:10.1213/ANE.0000000000005292

Herrera M, Danak S, Kim J, Kumar G. 215: A case of mesenteric ischemia secondary to SARS-CoV-2. Critical Care Medicine. 2021;49(1):93 doi: 10.1097/01.ccm.0000726748.61475.ce.

Kumar G, Adams A, Hererra M, et al. Predictors and outcomes of HAIs in COVID-19 patientsInt J Infect Dis. 2020;S1201-9712(20)32447-4. doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2020.11.135

Ling H, Fudim M, Egolum U. Lifting COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions: impact on heart failure hospitalizations in Northeast Georgia. Journal of Cardiac Failure. 2020 Aug. doi:10.1016/j.cardfail.2020.07.017

Oncology

Our oncology research program was recognized in 2018 as a Top 5 Accruing Site for numbers of patients enrolled in clinical trials by SWOG (the Southwest Cancer Chemotherapy Study Group). Our expert physicians, specializing in medical, surgical, radiation, and gynecologic oncology, are able to offer cutting-edge clinical trials to our patients.

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Heart & Vascular

Georgia Heart Institute participates in approximately 30 clinical trials annually, encompassing interventional cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, heart failure, electrophysiology and general cardiology treatment modalities.

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Trauma

Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s (NGMC) Level I trauma center is dedicated to advancing our understanding of trauma and its impact on individuals and communities. Currently, our Trauma Research team is participating in two international clinical trials. One measures the effectiveness of a blood clotting drug that can improve survival (TAP Trial), and the other studies how a device could increase trauma patients’ chances of survival (PROMPT Study).

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Innovation & Quality

From study start up, to conducting trials in state-of-the-art facilities, our research team adheres to the highest standards of quality control and regulatory compliance.  We specialize in the areas of oncology and cardiology research. By engaging in innovative clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, for example, as well as by leading pharmaceutical and medical device partners in the medical industry, we are able to offer our patients innovative therapies and treatments that, on the national scale, have the potential to impact the way all healthcare providers treat patients with cancer and heart disease in the future.

Research and Innovation Month

Join us October 2023
This institution-wide showcase will feature the outstanding research, evidence-based practice and quality improvement work our investigators have led throughout the year. View research presentations, videos, posters, research results and more from our NGHS investigators and renowned invited speakers.

Be sure to check back for more updates!


Contact Us

For more information about our current trials, please complete our contact form or call us directly at 770-219-9010