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Dr. Frances E. Ferguson

Dr. Frances E. Ferguson, MD, MPH, FACP

Dr. Frances E. Ferguson is a Board-Certified Internal Medicine physician. She received a BS in Zoology from Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1984, an MD in 1989 from HU College of Medicine, and completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1992. She received an MPH from Emory, Rollins School of Public Health, in 2003. She began her medical career at Albany Area Primary Health Care (AAPHC) in Albany, GA, after her Residency. She briefly left clinical medicine from 2004 to 2009 to broaden her public health outreach, expand her commitment to eliminating health disparities, and improve health outcomes for minority populations and the underserved. She joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, as a Program Director in the Office of Minority Health Research Coordination in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH/NIDDK/OMHRC.) OMHRC’s mission focused on eliminating health disparities in NIDDK mission areas by increasing diversity in the research workforce through the recruitment, training, and career development of minority and other underrepresented students, fellows, and early career investigators. In 2009, responding to her first love of primary care medicine, she returned to AAPHC as a clinical physician. She joined Grady in April 2024. She is a champion of vaccine promotion and uptake and dedicates a significant part of her free time to publicly advocating for the use of vaccines for the prevention and eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Specialties

  • Internal Medicine

Affiliations

  • Grady

Education & Training

  • Medical School: Howard University College of Medicine
  • Residency: Franklin Square Hospital

Honors & Awards

1981 to 1984 undergraduate Dean’s List Undergraduate Cum Laude 1984

1984 Undergraduate Beta Kappa Chi National Scientific Honor Society

2001 Hurst Foundation Scholarship Rollins School of Public Health at Emory

2001-2003 Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society

2005 and 2006 NIH Outstanding Performance Award

2008 Student National Medical Association Certificate of Appreciation

2012 Albany Area Primary Health Care Provider of the Year Award

2012 Georgia Rural Health Association Outstanding Rural Health Practitioner

2012 Georgia Association of Primary Health Care Provider of the Year

2012 American College of Physicians Fellowship Induction

2018 Robert E. Lee High School, Montgomery Alabama, Hall of Fame Induction

2021-2022 American College of Physicians W. Lester Henry Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Publications

The BELT Randomized Clinical Trial: “Blacks and Exacerbations on LABA vs Tiotropium.” Publication: Wechsler ME, Yawn BP et al. Anticholinergic vs Long-Acting B-Agonist in Combination with Inhaled Corticosteroids in Black Adults with Asthma: The BELT Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2015; 314 (16): 1720-1730. Doi:10.1001/jama. 2015.13277