Dr. Brian Kogon was eager to begin his new job as the chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery for Children's of Mississippi. His first day of work was Monday, Jan. 30, and by Wednesday evening, Feb. 1, he was in the operating room, mending the heart of a newborn patient with a congenital heart defect.

“It was good to get away from unpacking,” quipped Kogon, who, with his wife and three children, is settling into life in the Jackson area. “It was time to put the gloves on and go to work.”

Kogon comes to UMMC from Atlanta, where he was chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Children's Healthcare and director of adult congenital cardiac surgery at Emory University.

Also a professor of surgery in the School of Medicine, Kogon plans to actively grow Batson Children's Hospital's Children's Heart Center, which is nearly six years old, as well as UMMC's adult congenital heart program, alongside its director Dr. Mike McMullan.

“Dr. McMullan is one of the main reasons I'm here,” Kogon said. In conversation at a medical conference, Kogon learned from McMullan of the position when it became open in 2016.

Try to imagine a dentist's office without a dental hygienist. It's difficult. A dentist and a dental hygienist go together like peanut butter and jelly. There are few, if any, dental offices without a hygienist to provide twice yearly cleanings dentists recommend, especially to patients who eat a lot of PB&J.

It makes sense that two professions that practice together would train together. Such an affiliation will soon be case at the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry.

Pending approval by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees in April, the dental hygiene program at the School of Health Related Professions, or SHRP, will become a part of the dental school.

The dental hygiene program began in 1970 and was one of the first three programs to be a part of the newly formed School of Allied Health - later to be called SHRP - in 1972. The school included programs for medical technology, dental hygiene and medical record librarianship when it first opened under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Freeland, the first dean.

Several interesting events are scheduled for the upcoming week at the Medical Center.