The future of medicine lies in the hands of those who care for patients and who put their needs first, one of the country's most prominent health-care leaders says.

“You have the mission - that commitment to the people of Mississippi -- and it is really, really powerful,” Dr. John Noseworthy, professor of neurology and president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, told an overflow crowd Friday during a Grand Rounds presentation open to all faculty, staff and students.

“The future of medicine starts with the people, and the people I've met in the last couple of days here (at UMMC) are going to put us in a very good place.”

UMMC leadership asked Noseworthy to address the future of medicine because it's so critical to the current status of health care, said Dr. Richard Summers, professor of emergency medicine and associate vice chancellor for research.

Barron Kaho of Fayette has a disease that's etched on his face and hands, a condition that has drained the color from his skin in patches.

He considers himself lucky.

For one thing, the disease - called vitiligo - isn't fatal. “Like I say,” he said, “it's better to be on top of the earth than under it.”

For another, the mottling began to spread about the time a new doctor came to town: UMMC dermatologist Dr. Jasmine Hollinger; her primary area of interest: vitiligo.

“She's the problem solver,” said Kaho, 45, who was referred to Hollinger by his family physician.

Under Hollinger's care, including treatments with topical steroids, Kaho has seen a 20 percent improvement in his condition, a disease that can bring ridicule from the usual cruel suspects of any race, color or creed.

“Vitiligo is not limited to any ethnic group,” said Hollinger, who earned her M.D. at the Medical Center before completing a dermatology residency at Washington D.C.'s Howard University in June.

“But it may be more stigmatizing for African Americans and others with darker skin types.”

The possibility of stigmatization apparently haunted the late pop star Michael Jackson, whose purported case of vitiligo prompted him to depigment, or bleach, all of his skin.

“I don't want to look like no Michael Jackson,” Kaho said.

It's been more than three decades, but Chip Thomason remembers vividly the day in 1981 when the clowns saved him from 1,600 pounds of mayhem.

The Marine Corps veteran was bull-riding at a rodeo when the beast threw him before he could clear the chute. “The clowns got me out,” he said of the event's trademark rodeo clowns, who not only entertain, but distract angry bulls from fallen riders by giving them a new target.

Thomason, on his Marine unit's bull-riding team at the time, was left with a combination of broken arms and legs, but also with a new avocation: Becoming a clown by using his talents in tribute to the men who risked their lives to keep him from dying.

A graduate of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College in Venice, Fla., Thomason finds time to serve as director of adult perioperative services at the University of Mississippi Medical Center when he's not clowning around. “I still do rodeos quite frequently, and I'm a Shriner. I do parades, and I go to hospitals a lot,” said Thomason, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing and expects to complete his doctorate next summer.

“I clown religiously, usually every weekend,” he said. The Jackson resident will suit up next for a rodeo Jan. 29-30 in Johnson City, Tenn.

A number of interesting events is scheduled for the upcoming week at the Medical Center.