Presenting the Grand Rounds Lecture during Cherry Blossom Festival

MACON, GA (March 14, 2011) – As part of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, The Medical Center of Central Georgia (MCCG) will begin a lecture series celebrating Japanese and Asian subjects in medicine. Don K. Nakayama, M.D., M.B.A., will speak on Thursday, March 24 at 7:30 a.m. in Eversole Auditorium at MCCG. His lecture, “Serving Others in Need: Kurosawa's Medical Dramas,” is open to the public, and the media is invited to attend.  

“I enjoy the Cherry Blossom Festival and look forward to it each year,” said Dr. Nakayama, Milford Hatcher Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at MCCG. “Cherry blossoms are a symbol of Japan, so they're an important part of my own heritage as well. I wanted to contribute in some meaningful way to the week of events, so it seemed only natural that I do something relevant to Japan and medicine.”

Dr. Nakayama will review the medical themes in the movies of Akira Kurosawa, the late Japanese film director.

“If you're a film buff you know his samurai movies, like ‘Seven Samurai,'” said Dr. Nakayama, a longtime fan of Kurosawa's work. “His medical dramas are less known. They're some of his best work.”

Dr. Nakayama wrote a medical article reviewing four of Kurosawa's medical movies, and will present clips of them in his discussion.

The lecture is organized by the Department of Surgery at MCCG and the Mercer University School of Medicine, and is part of Grand Rounds, the main teaching conference for MCCG, in which medical topics are discussed in depth.