AUGUSTA, Ga ()- The Medical College of Georgia continues to grow. That was the message at the annual “State of the College Address” Friday.

Friday afternoon, Dr. David Hess, Dean at MCG, talked to colleagues and students about the college’s accomplishments and plans for the coming year. The theme of the day? Growth and expansion.

This year MCG had its largest first year class ever, 304 incoming students, one of the top 5 largest in the nation.

“Going up 20% this last year and the year before, about 17, 18%. So we’ve had, you know, close to a 40% growth over two years,” explained Dr. Hess.

That growth spreading far outside of Augusta.

“I think one of the points I want to make is how well-developed our regional campus system is, but it requires partners which are health systems that provide, you know, student support to us and an opportunity for students to learn,” Dr. Hess said.

He briefly discussed meeting with local leaders to try and secure funding for a new research facility. It’s something Wellstar MCG Health’s President said is needed at MCG, and not just because of the state of the current building.

“Our focus at research from a health care systems perspective is to help get the research from the bench to the bedside. So it’s our goal to increase that platform,” said Dr. Ralph Turner. “The Medical College of Georgia now has the opportunity to go central with all the Wellstar facilities, which just opens up access to have more clinical trials. So that’s a big win for all of us.”

Wellstar MCG is also working on expanding rural health care through its digital health care program.

“Right now on digital have programs in 18 different hospitals, 18 rural hospitals. And we help them stay a viable entity for the community because we manage the patients where they’re at,” Dr. Turner said.

There is some concern about the possibility of federal budget cuts impacting the National Institutes of Health. Cuts that could impact research at MCG.

“We were in the midst of recruiting a number of people. We’ve had to pause because we have to see if we’re going to lose $15 million. That’s going to impact what we’re able to do,” said Dr. Hess. “I think the administrators concerned that some of the research we’re doing in ODI research, there’s some concern about that. But most of the stuff that we do here is what we call discovery research.”

“That just means that we have to find another way to fund our research programs. Why? Because our patients depend on it. When you create research and it goes from the bench to the bedside and puts you in a clinical trial state, we will not let those patients down. We would do all we can to make sure we keep our programs viable for the community,” Dr. Turner added.

Dr. Hess also announced that MCG’s “Match Day” (matching students with residencies) will be held on March 21 at SRP Park.