The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, a national nonprofit leading the movement to bring compassion to every patient-caregiver interaction, has named Dr. Rick Boyte as the Schwartz Center National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year (NCCY) Award recipient. 

Dr. Brent Smith could have taken his medical degree and set up his practice in a city big enough for a Target and a Cracker Barrel.

Instead, he passed up more lucrative opportunities for a family medicine career in 14,000-population Cleveland, Miss.

“Part of me always wanted to go home,” said Smith, 32, who played high school football in Cleveland, where most of his family still lives. “I thought about doing orthopedic surgery when I was in medical school, but I didn't like not being able to connect on a personal level with patients.

“I realized family medicine is where I'm supposed to be. It's a very rural area here, and we need all the primary care we can get.”

Smith is being recognized for his devotion to the state's rural population with Mississippi's 2015 Rural Health Champion Award, an honor bestowed by the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. It goes to “an unsung hero who makes a notable contribution to health, health care, or a health-care delivery system in a rural Mississippi community,” said Erica Collins-Young, recruitment and retention coordinator in the Institute's Office of Population Health.

The award is presented in conjunction with National Rural Health Day, celebrated the third Thursday in November. On Nov. 30, Gov. Phil Bryant is scheduled to sign a proclamation recognizing Nov. 20 as Rural Health Day in Mississippi. Collins-Young and others from the Institute honored Smith Nov. 19 at his office with a plaque and a celebration for family and staff.

A total 12 health-care providers were nominated for Rural Health Champion, all of them excellent candidates, Colllins-Young said. “What's so great about Dr. Smith is that he's a UMMC graduate,” Collins said. “He is a really great guy, very approachable, and he really cares about the children in the Cleveland area. Everyone has something positive to say about him.”

When the results of the landmark SPRINT study were released by the American Heart Association on November 9, it made national headlines. In the midst of the breaking story, leading the discussion, was the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Dr. Daniel Jones.

“This is likely the most important blood pressure study in the past 40 years,” Jones, professor of medicine and physiology and interim chair of the Department of Medicine, told the AHA Scientific Sessions meeting in Orlando, Florida.

“It was a real honor and privilege [to give the faculty presentation],” said Jones. He was not an investigator with the study, but he is a former president of the AHA and an expert on hypertension, placing him in prime position to discuss the results. 

“It's one that should and will change the practice of treating high blood pressure around the world,” Jones said. The AHA now recommends 120/80 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury) as a treatment goal, based on greatly decreased risk for cardiovascular disease and death.

The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) commenced in 2009 to determine appropriate blood pressure targets to reduce cardiovascular disease related to hypertension, defined as blood pressure higher than 140/90. Over 100 sites across the United States participated, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

“Help! We need some help over here!”

Four bodies lie on the concrete floor - all bleeding, two seemingly unconscious. Clusters of white-shirted 14 and 15-year-olds cautiously approach.  Across the room, nurses instinctively jerk to attention, primed to assist.

Luckily, this is just a demonstration.

Students from the Jackson Public Schools' Academies of Jackson at Murrah High School have just arrived at the downtown Jackson Convention Complex for the Alignment Jackson Career Exploration Day. With the accident reenactment, instructors from the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing give the freshman students a glimpse at what a day as a nurse might be like - better than any pamphlet ever could.

A shortened holiday work week has limited the number of events on tap before Turkey Day.