Augusta University Health’s Adrenal Center will celebrate its grand opening on Jan. 29. The center represents a collaboration between clinical care and research to provide multidisciplinary, comprehensive and timely care to patients with diseases of the adrenal gland. This center is one of only a few in the country that can provide complete care for patients with all aspects of adrenal disease.
The grand opening of the Adrenal Center represents a partnership between Augusta University Health, the Georgia General Assembly and the State of Georgia.

The son of Curt Thompson, former Senator for the Fifth District of Georgia, was diagnosed with an adrenal gland tumor and was told that, due to the rarity of his son’s condition, the family would need to travel across the country for appropriate treatment.

“This opened my eyes,” Thompson said. “There simply was no place anywhere in the South for patients with these sorts of adrenal disorders to get treatment. I knew that had to change.”

Adrenal diseases are generally uncommon conditions, and many centers don’t have specialized facilities to treat disorders associated with the adrenal gland, according to Dr. Carlos Isales, director of the Adrenal Center, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and professor of medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Former Gov. Nathan Deal and the Georgia General Assembly saw the need and supported the senator’s vision for an Adrenal Center at Augusta University and joined him in efforts allocate funds to establish the center.

“It has become part of my mission to make sure that Georgians have state-of-the-art medical care available to them for these conditions,” Thompson said. “I’m proud to be part of this.”

Each patient at the Adrenal Center will also be automatically enrolled as a research study patient in hopes of better understanding adrenal gland diseases and the best ways to treat them.

“The Augusta University Adrenal Center provides a multidisciplinary approach from diagnosis through treatment and even further through research for patients with adrenal gland tumors,” said Dr. Aaron Bolduc, surgical director at the Adrenal Center and assistant professor of surgery at the Medical College of Georgia. “This quality care is only possible because of the hard work between the state government officials and Augusta University to provide for this specific need for Georgia citizens.”

Dr. Wendy Bollag, research director at the Adrenal Center, hopes that the cutting-edge research happening at the center will lead to the next advances in medicine.

Isales says he is excited about the opportunity to help patients, through both clinical care and research, in both the Augusta area and the southeast who suffer from adrenal gland disorders.

“I think that part of an academic medical center’s mission is to provide care for patients with rare conditions, and I think a specialized center provides a unique service that would otherwise be unavailable,” Isales said. “This is a big deal to patients with these conditions, because if the disease isn’t properly managed there can be serious health consequences. So, I think this center will be a great resource for those patients with one of these conditions.”

The multidisciplinary clinic will be located on the second floor of the Professional Building in the Digestive Health Center and will be staffed by a multidisciplinary team consisting of adrenal specialists from diverse disciplines including surgery, endocrinology, cardiology, radiology, pathology and research.