COLUMBUS – Alice House, M.D., FAAFP, regional dean of the Columbus campus of Mercer University School of Medicine, was recently elected chair of the Georgia Composite Medical Board for fiscal year 2015-2016.
The board – composed of 16 members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate – licenses physicians, physician assistants, respiratory care professionals, perfusionists, acupuncturists, orthotists, prosthetists, auricular detoxification specialists and residency training permits. The board also investigates complaints and disciplines those who violate the Medical Practice Act or other laws governing the professional behavior of its licensees.
“It has been a pleasure to serve the citizens of Georgia on the Composite State Medical Board. I am humbled by this honor entrusted to me, and I look forward to continuing the work of the many talented and dedicated physicians who have worked so diligently to form one of the best medical boards in the country,” said Dr. House, who was originally appointed to the Georgia Composite Medical Board by Gov. Sonny Perdue in January 2010 and served as its vice chair during fiscal year 2014-2015.
As the current chair of the Georgia Composite Medical Board, Dr. House also serves a standing appointment on the Georgia Commission on Medical Cannabis.
The commission is composed of 11 members appointed by the governor and includes the commissioner of public health, director of the GBI, director of the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency, commissioner of agriculture, chair of the Georgia Composite Medical Board and governor's executive counsel. It is responsible for establishing comprehensive recommendations regarding the potential regulation of medical cannabis.
The commission was created as part of a law passed by the Georgia General Assembly earlier this year allowing people with certain medical conditions to legally possess cannabis oil in Georgia with a doctor's approval. It met for the first time on June 16.
The commission met for a second time on Aug. 26, the same day that Dr. House was sworn in as a member by Gov. Nathan Deal.
Dr. House is a 1995 graduate of the School of Medicine. She completed her family medicine residency training at the Medical Center, Navicent Health, in Macon, and went into private practice in Byron before joining the Mercer faculty in 2002.
She was appointed regional dean of Mercer's Columbus campus, which enrolls up to 80 third- and fourth-year medical students, in July 2014. Previously, she served as senior associate dean for student affairs and admissions, director of student advising, professionalism program director and family medicine clerkship director.
About the Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)
Mercer University's School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened a full four-year campus in Savannah in 2008 at Memorial University Medical Center. In 2012, the School began offering clinical education for third- and fourth-year medical students in Columbus. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School's primary teaching hospitals: Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon;Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah;and The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The School also offers master's degrees in family therapy, preclinical sciences and biomedical sciences and a Ph.D. and Psy.D. in clinical medical psychology.
