Medical school expands 1st-year class

By Jack Mazurak

Clad for the first time in waist-length white coats emblematic of medical school, 123 first-year students squeezed onto a student union stairwell for a portrait that's become a UMMC tradition.

But this year's class wouldn't all fit. Vying for the group's attention, administrators waved their arms and shouted instructions to squeeze each successive row until everyone got into the frame.

For years the University of Mississippi School of Medicine administrators kept class sizes to 100. The increase, of course, is by design.

Mississippi's rates of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and hypertension remain at or near the nation's highest. Additionally, the state's doctor-per-capita ratio of 43 per 100,000 lags the national average of 58.9 per 100,000, according to a 2005 report by the University of Washington's Rural Health Research Center.

"Expanding our class size is important to Mississippi because of those rankings. And the people most likely to practice medicine in small-town Mississippi are from those towns," said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, the school's interim dean.

So clearly, part of the collective step toward better health includes more doctors. To that end, the School of Medicine will keep flooding the stairwell with students.

As part of a longer-term plan, School of Medicine administrators started enrolling progressively more students back in 2005. This year's incoming class contains about 20 more students and next year's incoming class could total as many as 130.

"From an admissions standpoint it was very easy. And it was nice to say 'yes' because we have more than enough qualified applicants," Woodward said.

Working with a poor and disease-prone population brought Hattiesburg native Mimi Abadie to the realization she wanted to be a doctor. Only she wasn't working in Mississippi at the time. As a philosophy major at the University of Mississippi, she studied abroad in Senegal and her experiences made a big impact.

"I want to help people. I'm interested in infectious diseases, how they spread and how to keep people from getting them," she said.

After getting her bachelor's degree, Abide took a year off to work and travel. Guided by an aunt who is a physician, she applied to medical school.

For administrators, adding more students means widening the stairwell's entire length. It means making more room in every course and training session from gross anatomy to exercises with manikins in the simulation center.

"All of the basic science professors responded like heroes in working toward our goal of 150 students in the next few years. Deans, chairs and faculty are all committed to the goal and have stepped up to the plate ready to do their part," Woodward said.

Beginning in their third year, students will move from classroom to clinical settings. The school's Curriculum Committee, over the next six to nine months, will consider how to expand the clinical side, Woodward said.

Before the class graduates, another step will be to expand the graduate medical education programs. The thinking goes, if newly minted doctors do their residencies in Mississippi, they'll be more likely to stay.

"It's our responsibility to the residents of Mississippi. There's as great a need here as anywhere in the country," she said.

Among this year's new students is David Smith, a tall young man with dark hair and a calm confidence. He didn't happen onto a health-related career path, rather he worked toward medical school since he was in high school.

"I was lucky to have a chemistry professor in high school who was an M.D.-Ph.D." Smith said of his motivations.

Plus, he's no stranger to the world of health care: his dad is a radiation oncologist in Greenwood.

Before arriving at the School of Medicine, he'd already earned a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees: one in medical sciences from Mississippi College, the other in biomedical sciences through UMMC's professional portal track.

"I feel prepared," he said, just minutes after the Class of 2013 White Coat Ceremony Aug. 5. "Maybe more prepared than your average student."

No doubt that's a good thing. In a few years, Smith — along with his numerous classmates — will join the big effort to lift Mississippi's health rankings from the bottom of the national stairwell.