The Hughston Foundation, Inc.

Under the directorship of Hughston Trauma surgeons John C.P. Floyd, MD, FACS, and Robert M. Harris, MD, the Hughston Orthopaedic Trauma Service Fellowship was established in the summer of 2015. Based at Midtown Medical Center, a Level II trauma center in Columbus, GA, the program is affiliated with the Hughston Clinic and the residency program from Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine’s new Auburn University campus. This fellowship offers a 1-year intensive experience in orthopaedic trauma with advanced postresidency training. Under the supervision of the attending Hughston Trauma physicians, the fellow is directly involved in the daily evaluation and care of trauma patients as well as in weekly follow-up of hospital-managed patients in the outpatient clinic. The fellow also attends weekly conferences where the attending physicians present relevant orthopaedic trauma topics. At quarterly journal club meetings, the fellow reviews and discusses current publications with Hughston physicians. Additionally, scholarly activity is an essential component of the fellowship: research time is built into the weekly schedule, and research methodology and scientific writing are incorporated into the curriculum. By the end of the year, the fellow completes an independent clinic research project suitable for publication.
The Hughston Orthopaedic Trauma Service Fellowship program is accredited through the Orthopaedic Trauma Association and leads to certification as an orthopaedic trauma subspecialist.

The mission of the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital Orthopedic Surgery Residency Training Program is to develop each resident into a compassionate physician and an excellent orthopedic surgeon. We provide our residents unparalleled clinical and operative experiences, challenging didactic, and ample research opportunities. Our approach to graduate medical education is resident-centered. Rotations are arranged to provide a one-on-one experience between the resident and the attending, working side-by-side. Our residents will leave the program ready to step into their careers and well-prepared to meet the challenges they will face in their practices.

Our Residency program has recently been awarded accreditation by the ACGME in 2019. Previously, we were accredited by the AOA for five years. We currently have 15 residents. Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital has recently applied to become accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2018. We participate in the National Residency Matching Program, and will be accepting 3 interns for the 2020-2021 program year. Our interviews are a two day process: Friday Night Meet & Greet with faculty and Saturday two-part interview, tour of the facility and a chance to talk with our current residents. Interview dates are scheduled for January 2021.

Residents spend the majority of their time at Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital as well as the Hughston Clinic, and the Hughston Surgical Center. Other local rotation sites include: Piedmont Midtown, Piedmont Northside, Piedmont Columbus Regional, Augusta University Hospital, Emory University Hospital, and Grady Health System.

Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital is an excellent place to complete your residency training. We invite you to learn more about our outstanding training program and encourage you to ask questions or discuss the program with our current residents.

The Hughston Foundation, Three Rivers AHEC, and Columbus Technical College host camps for students who have an interest in the medical field, especially orthopaedics, surgery, nursing, and rehabilitation. In addition to tours of each facility and lectures, the students were able to experience many hands-on activities. Some of the speakers and topics covered during camp included, optometry, orthopaedic technologist, nutritionist, medical writing, medical illustration, radiology, surgical nursing, surgical technologist, physician and medical residency program, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and athletic training. Additionally, the students enjoyed surgical technology in the operating room, emergency medicine and paramedicine, respiratory care, nursing, and obstetrics.

The Hughston Foundation collaborated with Harris County High School Work Based Learning program to offer the competition annually. High school and middle school students throughout Georgia submit biologically or medically inspired entries under drawing, painting, photography, 3D, or mixed media categories to the competition.
The Hughston Foundation Art Gala for the Biologically Inclined is perfect for art students who have yet to unmask the exciting world of art and science. This biological and medically inspired art competition encouraged students to create artwork while integrating the principle areas of the national STEAM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics).

More than 100 employees, physicians, nurses, athletic trainers, and students from the Hughston network, Martin Army Community Hospital, and various high schools volunteer for the annual preparticipation health screenings for local high school athletes. The screenings and accompanying research are directed and organized by the Institute of Athletic Health Care and Research (IAHCR) and cosponsored by the Hughston Foundation.
The chief objective of these screenings is to detect conditions that could place the athlete or other participants at risk for injury. Each year, athletes from more than 15 area high schools are screened at a local high school facility. The cost of the screening for each athlete is $10.00, $5.00 of which goes into an account at the athlete’s school for training equipment not covered by the athletic budget and $5.00 toward the cost of the screening supplies.
Under the direction of the late Stephen C. Hunter, MD, the Hughston Foundation created the Institute as a way to serve the athletic community and pursue research in the field of sports medicine. Since 1976, the IAHCR has completed more than 55,000 screenings. The results of these screenings will be added to our database which is used by researchers to study the health of athletes. Thanks to our volunteers and knowledgeable healthcare professionals, the preparticipation screening program has positively impacted the health and safety of the area’s high school athletes.

Every Saturday morning during the fall sports season, the Hughston Sports Medicine Team, composed of clinic physicians, residents, athletic training fellows, and physical therapists from Hughston came together at the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital (a primarily orthopaedic hospital located in nearby Phenix City, AL., and owned by Hughston physicians) to examine high school athletes injured during Friday night games. This meant that no athlete had to pass an anxious weekend awaiting treatment. The volunteer healthcare professionals offered on-site diagnoses and treatment plans as well as education on injury management to the athlete and their parents. These unique Saturday morning sports injury clinics ran from August through November. Over the past 10 years, the members of the Hughston sports medicine team have treated over 900 high school athletes from the West Georgia and East Alabama region who participated in a variety of sports.

All funds raised by the tournament go directly to support the Hughston Protect the Athletes campaign. The mission of the campaign is to raise funds to support the athletic sports coverage that Hughston provides across the Chattahoochee Valley to youth programs, such as sideline coverage at high school sporting events, support of preparticipation exams, and Saturday morning injury clinics. Besides providing coverage at sporting events, our fundraising projects help purchase much needed ImPACT concussion software for area high schools and other participating colleges.

For over 30 years, the Hughston Foundation has published the Hughston Health Alert, an 8-page quarterly patient education newsletter prepared by our writing and imagery departments. It focuses on orthopaedic and sports-related topics, including injury prevention and treatment, and is circulated at no charge to patients, coaches, students, and anyone requesting a subscription. Issues are shipped to the YMCA, fitness centers, the Girls Club, and Girls Inc. They are also distributed to participants at sporting events, such as the Georgia High School Soccer Association Championship, and at meetings for healthcare professionals across the Southeast. Moreover, the Hughston Health Alert is available online at www.Hughston.com where it attracts over a million visitors annually. In addition to a print readership of over 50,000 a year, the number of Hughston Health Alert e-mail subscriptions has risen to over 60,000.
The Hughston Health Alert has placed in the international APEX publication competition every year since 2002 and, for the past few years, has won an Award of Excellence in the newsletter category. For 2018, it won an Award of Excellence in the newsletter writing category. The APEX competition is an annual international competition that recognizes outstanding publications, including newsletters, magazines, annual reports, brochures, and websites, from both corporations and nonprofit organizations.