We are All for Your Health

Good morning.

Today is what one of our past medical school students dubbed the “NFL Draft for nerds” – Match Day. Our graduating medical students find out this morning where they will be taking the next step in their road to becoming a practicing physician while they train in their chosen specialty. To all the matches, congrats. To those who match here in a UMMC specialty, we’re excited to have you stay. To students who match at an out-of-state institution, we hope you’ll come back following your training. We need you. Mississippi needs you. To all our graduates who will one day wear a UMMC white coat with a faculty title on the chest, we look forward to your transition from student to colleague.

Now, on to today’s topic.

Gee Ogletree, president of the IHL Board of Trustees, had asked the executive officer of each IHL member university to give a presentation to the full board highlighting institutional structure, successes, missions, goals and impact. While UMMC is within the University of Mississippi system, we are often given the opportunity to share the UMMC story. I was scheduled to do this last month, on the very day of the cyberattack. So, we were rescheduled to yesterday. Today, I’ll highlight a little of the content the board members heard.

Humble Beginnings

From a single medical science building on the Oxford campus to three mission areas housed on a sprawling Jackson campus and locations across the state, we’ve GROWN. Our roots go back to 1903 with the opening of a two-year medical degree program, and now we’re a large academic medical center located in nearly every Mississippi county. And our revenue and expenses statements today look vastly different than how they did 50, 75 or 100 years ago. Our progress and expansion are felt by all Mississippians, even if they don’t know it.

This is who we are now, and it’s impressive:

Education was the Seed

Our roots have always been a place of learning. Over the years, we’ve changed in many ways, but our core is still to educate and train health care professionals. We do that very well, and we do it in a way that best benefits Mississippi. I shared with the board how we concentrate our academic programs on areas that are most impactful to those who live in this state. We are Mississippians training Mississippians to care for Mississippians. It can’t get any simpler – or more important – than that.

To emphasize the IHL system’s impact, I shared this graphic that shows from where our students come. Most of the students in our six schools matriculated from an IHL institution.

Discovery that Matters

To emphasize how well we are doing in our research mission area, I want to bring back a couple of bullet points in the graphic I shared above:

• 139 active funded research programs (the number of unfunded projects would be much larger and harder to quantify)
• 235 active clinical trials

These numbers underline our researchers’ proficiency, dedication and interest in finding answers, mostly about what matters most to Mississippians.

I highlighted a few of our larger, longer-running studies like ARIC, which stands for Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities and has been running at UMMC since 1987. The MIND Center is a national leader in the study of Alzheimer’s and dementia. The Jackson Heart Study is 25 years young and is the country’s largest single-site longitudinal study of heart disease in African Americans. The Mississippi Center for Obesity Research, the Mississippi Center for Excellence in Perinatal Research and the Mississippi Center for Violence Prevention are examples of how we focus much of our research activities on issues that disproportionately impact Mississippians.

Unparalleled Care

All 82 counties. Our patients come to us from every corner of Mississippi. Nearly every Mississippian has either received UMMC care or has a family member, colleague or friend who has. We have hospitals and clinics across the state, making UMMC care accessible to all. And if a Mississippian needs a higher level of care that isn’t available in their home community, we are the state’s leading transfer destination. From basic, general health care to the most advanced surgical procedures and transformational treatments, we are making a difference in Mississippians’ lives.

I always like to share a list of some of the services and programs that can be found only in Mississippi at UMMC, and this presentation was a golden opportunity.

• Dedicated children’s hospital
• Organ, tissue and bone marrow transplants
• Level IV neonatal ICU (the highest level)
• Level I trauma center (the highest level)
• Mississippi Burn Center (only accredited adult and pediatric burn unit)
• National Telehealth Center of Excellence (one of two in the U.S.)
• Statewide medical support for emergency/disaster response
• Mississippi Center for Emergency Services
• Pediatric skilled nursing facility

That list isn’t comprehensive but gives a hint of how vital we are to all Mississippians.

Cancer – Meeting the Epidemic Head On

I ended my presentation talking about what is currently one of our top institutional priorities – earning National Cancer Institute designation and building a world-class facility to house all our cancer-related programs.

Cancer is Mississippi’s top killer, and we are the very institution in this state that can do something about that. Really, we are the ONLY institution that can do it. We are uniquely positioned to build the programs and facilities that can reduce the impact cancer has on our state. Mississippi has the worst cancer outcomes in the country. Let me say that another way: Our fellow Mississippians are dying from cancer at a greater rate than in any other state. Let that sink in. Devastating. We MUST do something about it, and we will. It’s about time. I believe in us, and I believe in you.

I’ll be talking more on this topic in an upcoming column.

The Parts Make the Whole

I shared the image below with trustees because it shows in a simple way our complexity, our reach and the foundation of all that we do.

Each of these circles could have circles connected to them, and those can have more. It’s hard for people to fathom. This high-level view of an academic medical center helps show the parts that make up UMMC.  Each circle represents a way that we are focused on Mississippians.

The content I shared with the trustees is wholly possible because of your work, determination and care for your fellow Mississippians. Everything we do – education programs, research efforts, live-saving care – has purpose. It’s All for THEIR Health and helps us get closer to A Healthier Mississippi.

P.S. The VC Notes inbox is on hiatus and will return when a new system is developed that encourages helpful, actionable feedback that is easy to submit.