What Starts Here Saves Lives

Good morning!

My term as board chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges began this week and I’m honored to be able to serve in this role and have some input into the research mission of academic medicine, how health care is delivered and how medicine is taught now and in the future in the U.S. and Canada (where the AAMC’s 171-member medical schools, nearly 80 academic societies and approximately 400 teaching hospitals are located). But I’m most excited to be able to bring to a national discussion the Mississippi story. We are unique, face challenges few if any other states tackle, and as the only academic medical center and only safety net hospital in Mississippi, UMMC holds great responsibility for addressing these issues. A charge I’m pleased for us to carry out.

Last week’s VC Notes presented a new UMMC brand campaign that started running a couple of days ago. I’ve seen some of the elements already and I love the messages they are presenting to our communities. The webpage for the campaign can be found at umc.edu/YourHealth.

Today, I want to introduce you to another campaign. This one, though, extends far beyond our reach in Mississippi and surrounding states.

The AAMC recently kicked off an academic medicine awareness campaign to promote “the unique and essential roles of our institutions in communities across the country,” according to Dr. David Skorton, AAMC president and CEO. The new campaign’s slogan is What Starts Here Saves Lives. I can’t think of a truer statement about the AAMC’s powerful network of academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, including UMMC.

Among the new AAMC campaign’s key audiences are national and local elected officials, but the messages are good for everyone to be more educated. The work done in AMCs like UMMC impact more than just the patients who step into our hospitals and clinics. The education, research, community engagement and public health support AMC partake in make and leave behind significant impressions on the communities and states served.

The campaign website can be found here and features UMMC right on the front page!

AAMC is asking that member institutions promote the new campaign to their internal audiences first and then externally. Each of us can be a single sounding board, evangelizing to others the immense benefits of health science centers and academic medicine.

“For this campaign to demonstrate the value of your institutions and the contributions of academic medicine across the country, we urge every member institution to raise their voice and help position academic medical centers as essential institutions to America’s health,” Skorton said in his email announcing the campaign.

Our own campaign, All for Your Health, is built around the same premise that what we do here is essential to the people we serve, and beyond. Each of you, though, is a part of the greater academic medicine network and our place in that group – with a leading voice in the conversations – will help us in our drive toward A Healthier Mississippi.