CMIO earns Q Award, bariatric surgeons gain accreditation, anesthesiologist is jolly good Fellow

The Medical Center's chief medical information officer earns a quality distinction, the bariatric surgery program reels in an ACS accreditation and an anesthesiology fellow gains a national AIMBE honor.    

Informatics specialist earns quality recognition

Dr. John Showalter, right, assistant professor of medicine and chief medical information officer, receives the monthly Q Award from Dr. Dan Jones, MCOR director of clinical and population sciences and former University of Mississippi chancellor, during a January presentation by Quality Administration.

Showalter was nominated for the award by Keith Hodges, clinical intelligence manager in the Center for Informatics and Analysis, who praised Showalter for establishing and leading the new center.

"The comprehensive center . . . will provide services to advance the health-care, research and education missions of the University of Mississippi Medical Center,” Hodges wrote. “The center will establish the infrastructure to capture, aggregate, manage, share and analyze data to create clinical knowledge, improve population health and connect research, education and patient care.”

Hodges said Showalter's reach isn't limited to the center, however. He said the Clinical Documentation Excellence Program Showalter created “supports clinicians at the academic department and division level in our effort to create the most complete, accurate and timely documentation for our services in providing exceptional patient care.”

"The program improves documentation accuracy, completeness and timeliness; builds competency in details needed for ICD-10; supports physicians with EHR template improvements; (and) improves key metrics founded on documentation.”

The Q Award is presented to a Medical Center physician who promotes quality and improves patient safety. To nominate a physician for the award, select the “Q Award” link under the UMMC Yellow Pages on the UMMC Intranet.

Bariatric surgeons receive ACS accreditation

The Medical Center's bariatric surgery program has been accredited by the American College of Surgeons.

The national accolade comes from the college's Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program. UMMC received notification of the accreditation this month, signifying that its program meets essential criteria for staffing, training and facility infrastructure and protocols for care, ensuring its ability to support patients with severe obesity.

The accreditation “also signifies our commitment to reporting our outcomes from surgery, and to ensure that those outcomes meet, or are better than, national averages,” said Dr. Kenneth Vick, associate professor of surgery and a key player in the growth of UMMC's bariatric surgery program.

AIMBE College to induct UMMC anesthesiologist

Tucci

Dr. Michelle A. Tucci, professor of anesthesiology, will be inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) on April 4 in the National Academy of Science's Great Hall in Washington, D.C.

Chosen by her peers, Tucci has been recognized for her outstanding contributions to the fields of cellular physiology, drug delivery and education. She will be one of 160 AIMBE Fellows inducted at this year's ceremony, representing the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country.

Previous AIMBE Fellows have received awards, such as the Presidential Medal of Science and the Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation.

The AIMBE's mission is to recognize excellence in and advance the fields of medical and biological engineering in order to advance society. Members of the AIMBE College of Fellows, active since 1991, are recognized as leaders and innovators in their field, as well as successful advocates for public policy.