Georgia South Family Medicine Residency Program graduated its fourth class of residents on June 25. Pictured from left are Georgia South Family Medicine Residency Program Director Kirby Smith, DO, Arian Baker, MD, Jermaine Robinson, DO, Ethan McBrayer, DO, Stephen Yarbrough, DO, and Chief Academic Officer Woodwin Weeks, DO.

MOULTRIE, Ga. – Four family medicine residents graduated as the Class of 2022 from the Georgia South Family Residency Program on Monday, June 25, at Sunset Country Club.

“This is the third year that we have been able to gather and collectively recognize the realization of a vision that we held for a long time,” Jim Matney, the Colquitt Regional president and CEO, said in a press release Monday. 

“Georgia South Graduate Medical Education is the culmination of years of planning and strategizing to bring necessary services to this area,” Matney said. “This year, as we graduated our third class and welcomed a new slate of family medicine residents, we also celebrated the addition of a new psychiatry residency program to Georgia South and honored our first class of psychiatry residents. This is only the beginning. Our vision for Georgia South is to be the regional leader in graduate medical education and to provide an unparalleled training experience for our residents, medical students and other learners.”

The new Georgia South alumni are Doctor of Medicine (MD) Arian Baker and Doctors of Osteopathy (DO) Ethan McBrayer, Jermaine Robinson and Stephen Yarbrough.

The class of 2022 began their residencies in the summer of 2019. 

According to the press release, residency is the final step before doctors begin practicing on their own. 

The graduates gained knowledge on various specialties during the three-year program’s rotations including radiology, orthopedics, critical care, practice management and dermatology. 

The residents can also work at the Georgia South Family Medicine Residency Clinic, which allows them to build relationships with their patients.

Georgia South Family Medicine Residency Program Director Kirby Smith, DO, said, “It is our hope that when our residents graduate from Georgia South they will stay in or nearby Moultrie to launch their careers as independent physicians. 

“This year, all four graduates will be staying within 65 miles of Georgia South,” he said, “and three have signed on to stay within the Colquitt Regional family. These physicians will be tremendous assets to our community. We are extremely proud of this class of graduates and are proud to have played a role in their education and training.”

Baker is joining the team at HCA Florida Capital Primary Care in Tallahassee, Florida, as a family medicine physician.

McBrayer and Yarbrough will be practicing family medicine at Sterling Group Primary Care.

Robinson will work at CRMC as a hospitalist. 

The inaugural class of psychiatry residents and the sixth class of family medicine residents were introduced at Georgia South’s annual Residents Celebration on June 15. 

The incoming family medicine residents include Monica Drummond, DO, Charles Haddad, MD, Montavious McKenzie, MD, and Bayan Suleiman, MD. 

The first class of psychiatry residents is Anthony Cimmino, MD, Xuan Ouyang, DO, and Richard Tricardo, MD.

“Of the 14 total graduates that have been through Georgia South, half of them are now practicing at Colquitt Regional or a Sterling Physician Group clinic,” Richard E. Turner Jr., the CRMC Hospital Authority chairman, said. “Rural areas have historically suffered from a lack of access to physicians, but we have created a tangible solution to this issue through the implementation of our residency programs.”

Georgia South is located at 3301 Freedom Lane.

For more information about Georgia South Graduate Medical Education, please refer to www.colquittregional.com/georgia-south/.