The problem with having talented people is that others want them too.

Thus, it was probably only a matter of time before Medical College of Georgia President Dr. Dan Rahn was going to be plucked from Augusta.

He has been named the next chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Rahn is a big thinker, a visionary and a force to be reckoned with in the field of medical education, and has overseen a period of great transition at MCG. Most recently, the state moved to build a new school of dentistry in Augusta, while also planning a satellite MCG campus at the old U.S. Navy School in Athens.

Rahn was instrumental in navigating some treacherous waters as the politically delicate question of an MCG satellite in Athens was debated. At times, Rahn was put in untenable positions between his obligations to the state -- he answers to the Board of Regents, its chancellor, and the governor -- and understandable concerns about Augusta's role in it all.

All along, he worked to find the room for MCG to expand in Augusta.

Ultimately, after many political battles, the city and state and MCG teamed up to vacate and raze the former Gilbert Manor housing complex and get the land into MCG hands.

Somehow, Rahn made it all work, and the state and city are better for it.

Since he took the reins in 2001, applicants to MCG are up 43 percent, enrollment has ballooned from 1,900 to 2,450, sponsored research -- i.e., grant money coming in -- went from $42 million to $74 million, and the campus is in the process of growing from 80 acres to 100.

We don't want him to go, but perhaps his exit can help enlighten the search committee as to how to make things better for his successor. With the political waters calmer, perhaps the main item on the agenda will be to make sure MCG and its now-independent hospital, MCG Health Inc., work hand-in-glove, and to make sure all of Augusta's clinical-setting opportunities are available for MCG students.

Despite the difficulties, Rahn never lost sight of his overriding mission to improve health in Georgia and to expand the output of health-care professionals flowing out of the state's only public medical school.

We know what Arkansas is getting because we know what we are losing.