Celebrating National Doctors Day the Augusta University way

Every year, physicians in the U.S. see more than 320 million patients. Most put in 40- to 60-hour workweeks. One in four puts in even more.

In Augusta University’s own hospitals and clinics, doctors take care of more than 19,000 admitted patients and over 465,000 more during outpatient and emergency room visits.

It’s a heavy undertaking, but on March 30, we all have a chance to say thank you.

Held annually, National Doctors’ Day is a nationwide celebration of the life-altering work being done in hospitals, clinics and offices across the country by some of America’s finest physicians. From saying thank you to your general practitioner to laying flowers on the grave of a deceased physician, there are countless ways to show your appreciation.

But as Georgia’s public academic health center, we have a unique responsibility to the men and women who keep our state healthy. After all, Doctors’ Day is a Georgia tradition.

From little Winder, Georgia, Eudora Brown Almond — wife of the prominent Georgia physician Dr. Charles B. Almond — first put forward the idea of devoting a day to honor Georgia’s physicians in the early 1900s.

By 1933, the Barrow County Alliance had taken up Almond’s resolution, and the first Doctors’ Day celebration took place on March 30 of that year.

The date of March 30 was chosen to commemorate the 91^st anniversary of the first administration of anesthesia to a patient — a procedure performed in 1842 in Jefferson, Georgia, by Georgia-native Dr. Crawford W. Long.

The first Doctors’ Day observances included mailing greeting cards to current physicians and placing flowers on the graves of deceased doctors. Without a doubt, the date was a momentous occasion for Georgia physicians. But as time passed, word of the small-town celebration would spread across the country.

Today, in honor of Doctors’ Day’s Georgia roots, we celebrate some of our state’s finest physicians. To show your appreciation, take a moment to see how Augusta University doctors change the world every day with groundbreaking research, life-altering wisdom and truly outstanding accomplishments.

• Medical Minute with Dr. Joseph Hobbs
• New gene identified as cause, early indicator of breast cancer
• Parent Herald: Dangers of Homemade
• Browne named among the best in women’s health
• Small study finds immunotherapy improves cognition in patients with schizophrenia
• Surgeon talks breast cancer rates in African Americans
• Free HIV testing highlights new cases in the CSRA
• Can Secondhand Smoke Lead to Weight Gain?
• Army doctors learn ultrasound at Augusta University
• Does your child really need antibiotics?
• Help your child get a good night’s sleep
• Dr. Satish Rao’s research featured in Men’s Health