NGMC Announces New Director for Psychiatry Physician Residency Program

Published: Thursday, November 12, 2020

Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) has a plan to help fill the region, state and nation’s need for more well-trained mental health professionals – and now they have a new leader to help make it happen. Kalpana Prasad, MD, has been named program director for NGMC’s planned psychiatry physician residency program.

“Building a residency program to train the next generation of skilled psychiatrists is the perfect combination of teaching and community service – two passions of mine,” said Dr. Prasad, who is a practicing psychiatrist with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group. “I am thrilled to empower the physician leaders of tomorrow to best serve the people who need their help.”

Dr. Prasad attended medical school at King George Medical College in Lucknow, India. She completed psychiatry residencies at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in the UK and Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During her time in Philadelphia, Dr. Prasad held various roles as a medical director at a women’s mental health unit, an inpatient and outpatient clinical director, and as the city-appointed psychiatry consultant to implement integrative mental health treatments and train other mental health professionals at several health centers. She also fulfilled her passion for teaching through faculty positions with Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Prasad says warmth of weather and the people here eventually brought her family to Atlanta. She worked with the Atlanta VA Medical Center, supervised the outpatient resident clinic and taught students at Emory University’s School of Medicine and volunteered with the Ronald McDonald House, Suicide Awareness programs and other agencies that provide support to abused women.

Dr. Prasad is the immediate past president of Indo-American Psychiatric Association of Georgia and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees with the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association. She was recently nominated to the 2020-21 class of the Georgia Physicians Leadership Academy, a one-year program through the Medical Association of Georgia. She is also a Distinguished Fellow with American Psychiatric Association.

“The Graduate Medical Education (GME) program at NGMC not only has the institutional support to build an amazing psychiatry residency program, it is also located in a beautiful region. The warmth of the people and southern charm and values is a great draw. Off-hours can be spent hiking, exploring the mountain towns, enjoying Lake Lanier, and Atlanta is only a short drive away. Residents will have exposure to a diverse patient population as well. It’s a great place to practice and train. We can and will make a big difference here,” says Dr. Prasad.

In her new role leading NGMC’s psychiatry physician residency program, Dr. Prasad is in the process of recruiting faculty and completing the program’s accreditation application to submit to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She hopes the program will be accredited in time to recruit the first class of six physicians to start their psychiatric residencies in July 2022. Meanwhile, Dr. Prasad is also caring for people in an outpatient clinic at Laurelwood, NGMC’s mental health and behavioral health facility.

“We are excited to have an accomplished leader like Dr. Prasad to help us apply for Psychiatry residency program accreditation and keep the best and brightest to care for our community,” said John E. Delzell, MD, vice president of Medical Education for Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) and Designated Institutional Official for NGMC. “As our region continues to grow, having excellent psychiatric resources available is as important as ever.”

NGMC plans to continue expanding its Graduate Medical Education program by seeking accreditation for additional specialties: emergency medicine and OB/GYN. By 2024, all six physician residency programs – internal medicine, general surgery, family medicine, emergency medicine, OB/GYN, and psychiatry – could host more than 200 residents, which would make the program one of the largest in the state of Georgia.

For more information about NGMC’s GME program, visit www.ngmcgme.org.