Dr. Brad Ingram has already made an impression on students, medical and beyond, which is why he was chosen to give the second annual Last Lecture on Wednesday in the Student Union to a crowd of almost 250 students, faculty, and staff. He shared a serious message about physician and health care burnout, but delivered his thoughts on the subject with plenty of laughs.

Hosted by Student Alumni Representatives, or STARs, the Office of Alumni Affairs, and the Associated Student Body, a “Last Lecture” is traditionally a message that someone gives knowing it's their last chance to speak publicly, an idea that became popularized when Dr. Randy Pausch gave a talk at Carnegie Mellon University one month after learning he had metastatic pancreatic cancer in 2007. At only 38 years old, Ingram said he was extremely humbled to be chosen, and joked that this is his “mid-life crisis” lecture instead of his last.

Ingram is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 16. While in college, he met a doctor in Memphis who finally diagnosed his specific epilepsy and told him there was no reason his disease should ever keep him from medical school, or anything else he wanted to do.

His personal experience with the disease has made him who is as a doctor today. “I'm really passionate in taking care of kids. I want them to know, 'you have epilepsy; don't let it have you,'” he said.

When Medical Center employees said they wanted improvements in workplace communication, respect and recognition for a job well done, someone heard them and took action.

Last fall's employee engagement survey administered system-wide revealed both challenges and opportunities in the key areas of communication, respectfulness, professional development, awards and recognition, patient and employee safety, and patient and employee experience.

Before the patient finds out if the mole they've been concerned about is benign or malignant - even before the pathologist steps up to the microscope to make that determination - the tissue sample undergoes a complicated process.

The specimen undergoes “fixation and infiltration” to prevent it from spoiling. It is then embedded in paraffin, sliced thin by a microtome and placed on a slide to be stained or treated with chemicals.

Every day, surgical specimens at the University of Mississippi Medical Center hospitals and clinics produce an average of 400 tissue samples for diagnosing disease. It's a histologist's job to process these specimens for pathology, and there is a national shortage in the field. 

Samantha Claxton is a histotechnician in the anatomic pathology lab at UMMC. She said she was introduced to histology through her job as a phlebotomist.

“I found histology to be fascinating,” Claxton said. “It's a job that teaches patience and requires attention to detail. It's very rewarding.”

A new program in the Medical Laboratory Sciences department at the School of Health Related Professions will address the shortage locally. The Bachelor of Science in Histotechnology is now accepting applications and will enroll its first students for the 2017 fall semester.

An endocrinology professor will earn a major distinction this weekend while several graduate students and postdoctoral fellows strike gold at a national conference.