News Around the State

Simple examination, early detection increase oral cancer survival rates

Simple examination, early detection increase oral cancer survival rates Dr. George M. Taybos, left, professor of care planning and restorative sciences in the School of Dentistry, performs an oral cancer exam on Adrianne Davis, an oral radiology technician.

Cancer in the mouth is as common as leukemia, but a 60-second exam by a dentist can mean the difference between life and death.

According to Dr. George M. Taybos of Ridgeland, professor of care planning and restorative sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the stage at which the oral cancer is diagnosed is critical.

“Oral cancer detected at its early stage has a five-year survival rate of 81 percent compared to 30 percent for the advanced stages of oral cancer,” he said. “Patients should expect their dentist to perform an oral cancer exam at each visit.”

Only 34 percent of oral cancers are detected at an early stage, yet oral cancer occurs on tissues that are easy to examine, Taybos said.

Approximately 30,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States, with an estimated 7,320 deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, oral cancer occurs almost as frequently as leukemia and claims almost as many lives as the most dangerous form of skin cancer, melanoma.

In the last 50 years, the five-year survival for oral cancer has improved very little. It’s currently 61 percent for Caucasians and 39 percent for African-Americans.

Taybos, immediate past president of the American Academy of Oral Medicine, said a thorough examination of all dental patients is appropriate and necessary, and can be performed during routine dental visits.

He attended the Oral Cancer Consortium at New York University last year. The consortium is committed to increasing the awareness of oral cancer among health professionals and the general public.

The public is aware of the need to have annual examinations for early detection of breast, prostate, cervical, and colon cancers, but the same awareness does not exist for oral cancer, he said. And all health care providers are not performing an oral cancer examination.

“There is a lack of confidence in performing a thorough oral cancer examination and the assumption is that an oral cancer examination is someone else’s responsibility.”

Taybos teaches his students to perform an oral cancer examination on every patient every time the patient presents for treatment.

“The examination takes less than 60 seconds, and may save a patient’s life,” he said.

It consists of checking the tongue palate, inside of the cheeks and lips for any bumps or unusual sores.

Symptoms include an ulcer that does not heal; a “lump or bump” in the mouth that may be increasing in size; difficulty and/or pain on chewing and swallowing; soreness when moving the tongue; numbness in areas of the head and neck; and dentures that may not fit because of growth or the presence of an ulcer.

Oral cancer most often strikes adults over the age of 40 and affects twice as many men as women. Those individuals who use any form of tobacco products, especially combined with the use of alcohol, are at increased risk for oral cancer. However, more than 25 percent of oral cancers occur in nonsmokers with no other risk factors.

According to Taybos, the University of Mississippi Medical Center has a very strong team approach to managing patients with an oral cancer. The Head and Neck Tumor Conference, consisting of head and neck surgeons, radiation oncology, hematology oncology, and speech therapy, work together to provide the best options for treating and rehabilitating oral cancer patients.

“With this tumor conference and the individual Medical Center participants, there is no reason that a citizen of Mississippi should feel that he or she has to leave the state in order to have ‘top quality’ treatment for his or her oral cancer,” he said. “Patients can and do receive that treatment right here at UMC.”

According to Taybos, 90-95 percent of all oral cancers occur on the soft tissues of the mouth, and these tissues can easily be examined by health care providers.

“To quote a Chinese proverb, ‘a thousand mile journey begins with one small step.’ Initially we must insure that health care professionals are diligent in their examination of the oral tissues; then we must develop strategies to inform the public of the need to have an oral cancer examination,” he said. “Oral cancer may not be one of the most prevalent malignancies, but the treatments can adversely affect your life. The surgical approach is sometimes extremely physically compromising.

“Detection of the oral cancer at an early stage will result in an increased rate of survival as well as less invasive treatments.”

Oral cancer can be prevented by eliminating risk factors such as tobacco product use and excessive alcohol consumption. Using a lip balm that contains sunscreen also will reduce the risk of lip cancer. Additionally, studies indicate that eating fruits and vegetables as part of a low-fat, high-fiber diet may reduce the risk of cancer.

UMC offers partial cornea transplant, restores sight to patient

Dr. Bo Huang, right, assistant professor of ophthamology, checks the eyes of Harlon Graves, Jr. of Tylertown. Graves had an endothelial cornea transplant threee months ago.

Three months ago, Harlon Graves Jr. of Tylertown could see only light, a few colors and shadowy shapes.

Cornea degeneration had robbed the 72-year old of his vision and diminished his ability to enjoy simple pleasures, such as reading or watching television. Following an endothelial cornea transplant at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Graves now can watch the evening news without difficulty.

“It’s like a miracle,” he said. “I can’t express to you what this means to me. I went from being blind to being able to see.”

The Medical Center is the only facility in the state of Mississippi and one of the few facilities in the Southeast that offers Descemet’s stripping with endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK) – transplantation of the back of the cornea. The procedure has fewer complications and a shorter recovery than a complete cornea transplant, which would have been Graves’ only option a few years ago.

Dr. Bo Huang, assistant professor of ophthalmology, who performed Graves’ surgery, said the advantages of DSEK are no corneal stitches, no additional astigmatism, a decreased rate of postoperative complications and minimized risk for significant eye trauma in the future.

“The old procedure would take years for a patient to recover. This new procedure takes a few weeks,” he said.

Graves said he suffered no pain, only tenderness and redness in the eye for a few days. He is pleased with the results.

“I was hoping for the best, and I got it. Eyesight is so important. You don’t realize it until it’s gone,” Graves said.

Cornea degeneration is caused by the loss of cells. Huang said each person is born with a certain number of cornea cells that degenerate over time. The cells keep the cornea clear, but when they fall below a certain number, the cornea becomes cloudy, which is known as age-related degeneration of endothelial cells.

In the DSEK procedure, a thin piece of donor corneal tissue containing endothelial cells and posterior corneal stroma is made with a special device called microkeratome. The tissue is placed in the eye through a small incision on the side of the eye.

Huang said the surgery is safer because the new cornea is inserted through a small incision rather than a complete opening of the front part of the eye, reducing the chance of a devastating hemorrhage during the surgery or an infection.

In Graves’ case, the ultrasound used during an earlier cataract surgery damaged the cornea cells, causing vision loss. The DSEK procedure replaced those damaged cells, significantly changing the patients’ vision.

“They can make things out much better. It would be a major improvement,” Huang said.

Both Huang and Dr. Connie McCaa, professor of ophthalmology and director of research, are cornea specialists and perform the DSEK procedure. For more information, call the Department of Ophthalmology at 601-815-3248.

Baptist Union County Names New Radiology Director

Thomas M. Bailey has been named director of radiology at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County. Bailey was previously director of radiology at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City. He began his career in radiological technology in 1987 and has many years of experience educating, training and managing radiological technologists. Bailey is currently working on a bachelor’s degree in allied health management.

“I am delighted to welcome Thomas to our wonderful team of managers and directors,” said James Huffman, administrator and CEO of Baptist Union County. “His years of experience and previous leadership roles make him an ideal candidate for this job, and I know he will succeed in it.”

Baptist Union County is a 153-bed hospital that offers a variety of health care services, including labor and delivery, outpatient and laser surgery and a 24-hour emergency department. In 2004, the hospital renovated its Women’s Center, which features five labor/delivery/recovery suites, two surgical suites for Caesarean sections, a level II nursery for sick babies and a 15-bed postpartum unit. Baptist Union County also offers one of the only open MRI machines that is accredited by the American College of Radiology in Mississippi. The hospital, which employs about 448 health care professionals, had 961 births and 18,176 emergency department visits in fiscal year 2005. According to a recent University of Memphis study, Baptist Union County has an annual economic impact of $47 million on its community.

MCC, Rush recognized for strategic partnership

AWARD-WINNING TEAM - Pictured at Tuesday's awards ceremony in Orlando, Fla., are, from left, Cam Preus-Braly, chair of the 2006 Futures State Directors Commission; Carol Blackwell, human resource manager for Rush Foundation Hospital; Richie McAlister, Meridian Community College dean of occupational education; Jean Willis, MCC workforce development coordinator; Donnie Smith, vice president of human resources and public relations for Rush Health Systems; Laura Davis, Rush business development manager; and Dale Campbell, professor and director of the Community College Leadership Consortium, University of Florida.

An eight-year partnership between Meridian Community College and Rush Health Systems is finally receiving the recognition Jean Willis believes it deserves.

Recently, in Orlando, Fla., the Community College Futures Assembly presented Meridian Community College and Rush Health Systems with a Bellwether Award in the Workforce Development category for their strategic partnership that “promotes community and economic development.” Nine other community colleges were in the running for the award.

“This really is a validation for our partnership,” said Willis, MCC's workforce development coordinator. “It is a validation of what a true, quality workforce partnership should be, which means we work with mutual trust, mutual benefits. They (Rush) help us to grow by providing all of these benefits to our students, and we help them to grow by providing training opportunities.”

Other finalists for the award came from across the country, including Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts and Alabama.

MCC President Scott Elliot said he is elated at the recognition both Rush and MCC have received.

“It truly is an outstanding partnership, and it is gratifying to see it recognized in this fashion,” Elliot said. “It is one thing for us to brag about it, but when it is recognized through a national organization, that speaks volumes.”

Since 1999, MCC and Rush Health Systems have teamed up to, as Rush Vice President of Human Resources and Public Relations Donnie Smith said, “open up MCC as a progressive community college” and “sharpen the skills of Rush employees and provide career paths.” For example, MCC provides several training programs and classes for Rush employees in areas such as leadership, customer service and billing, as well as employee performance assessments.

“MCC has been great to work with,” Smith said. “And this award is simply indicative of the lack of barriers between our two entities.”

And Rush has held up its end of the partnership by providing MCC with clinical training space, biology science labs, lecture rooms and equipment for medical students.

“It's not simply a ‘you do this for us, we'll do this for you' type situation,” said Richard McAllister, MCC's dean of occupational education. “It truly is a working relationship where they do things for us because they want to, not because they are obligated to.”

Willis said now that this partnership has been nationally recognized, it has opened a multitude of opportunities.

“Not only will we get a lot of national attention, but this puts us in the position to be able to present our program to other entities as well,” Willis said.

SRH selects Green as Employee of the Month

Singing River Hospital has selected Carol Green as January's Employee of the Month. Carol works in Case Management as a client company coordinator, working with Med Works and Occupational Health.

Carol was born in Biloxi and grew up in Pascagoula. She attended Jackson County Junior College. She began working at SRH in 1994 in Human Resources and transferred to Med Works when it was established in 1995.

Married for 32 years, Carol and her husband, Jacob, have one son, Ricky Cannette, four grandsons and one great-granddaughter.

Buettel named OSH Employee of the Month

Don Buettel, a mechanic in Facilities Support at Ocean Springs Hospital, has been named the January Employee of the Month at OSH.

He started working in Maintenance (now Facilities Support) in April of 1996 and has remained in the department since that time. He and his wife, Raquel, live in Ocean Springs and have one son, Daniel, 14.

Thompson named OSH associate administrator

Assuming the role of associate administrator at Ocean Springs Hospital is Heath Thompson, who previously held the position of risk manager at the hospital.

Heath, a native of Cleveland, Miss., is a graduate of Delta State University, where he earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in business. After completing his education, he moved to Jackson to manage a Sherwin Williams store. However, his previous experience with health care and his desire to help others called him into the nursing profession. He attended nursing school at the University of Southern Mississippi and began his career at Forrest General Hospital where he worked for three years.

In 1999, Heath and his family moved to Ocean Springs, and he began working at OSH on Two East, later transferring to Intermediate Care on Two North. In 2000, he became OSH's risk manager and remained in that position until his promotion.

New Book Gives Voice to Homeless and Mentally Ill Artists and Poets

Friends of Mississippi State Hospital Inc. has published a book that gives voice to our state’s mentally ill and homeless citizens. Images from the Edge is a collection of 10 years of writings and artwork created by participants of workshops conducted by the Mississippi State Hospital Community Services Stubbs Homeless Program in Jackson. This book is about people who live and suffer—and also triumph—along an edge that separates them from mainstream society. Some are homeless; some are mentally ill; some are addicted to drugs or alcohol or both; some are all of the above. These creative works show us that homeless and mental illness do not mean hopeless or helpless.

“Through its painfully honest words and artwork, this book encourages us all to chip away at that ‘edge’ so that we can focus not on our differences, but on our common humanity,” said Linda Townes, director the Stubbs Homeless Program.

Townes started the program’s writing and art workshops in the early 1990s. “Both at the Stubbs House and during my frequent visits as a social worker to local emergency and transitional shelters for the homeless,” Townes said, “I kept hearing, ‘No one wants to listen to us. No one really cares about what we have to say.’ These people believed, for good reason, that they had absolutely no voice. Society has ignored and stigmatized them, so why should they believe anything else?”

Townes heard them. She listened. She took action. You may remember The Survivor. No longer published, this magazine was a series of collections of writings from the Stubbs House workshops. Many of the writings in Images from the Edge are from The Survivor. Others are from a recent workshop held at the Friendship Connection, a secondary treatment center that serves women coming out of correctional facilities. Writer and educator F. Malika Adams-Johnson conducted that workshop for this book.

“I appreciate the women there for sharing their joys, their failures, their triumphs and, most of all, for their willingness to explore and develop their creativity,” Adams-Johnson said.

Well-known local artists Lea Barton and Ellen Langford conducted art workshops for the book, as did Mississippi State Hospital art instructor Anthony DiFatta.

“Working with the homeless mentally ill has been a huge influence on my own art and my life in general,” DiFatta said. “Seeing people in such adverse situations with problems such as mental illness, hunger and addiction, who still have the desire to be creative, makes me work harder at being a better artist and a better person.”

Barton shared similar thoughts of gaining more than she gave to this project. “I enjoyed the experience and seeing firsthand how the process of creativity provides empowerment and solace, excitement and revelation—to teacher and student alike.”

In 2004, Friends of Mississippi State Hospital and the Stubbs Homeless Program, in partnership with the Mississippi Arts Commission, received a grant from the Society for the Arts in Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson. The result, Images from the Edge, is the answer to that collective voice Linda Townes heard calling more than 10 years ago. “We are thankful to have found a way to give them the voice of empowerment for which they have so earnestly longed,” said Townes.

That same voice also caught the attention of Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman, who wrote, “The creative pieces resulting from this art therapy collection unveil the pain and suffering common to us all—a theme that dominates the lives of these eloquent poets and artists, giving voice to their humanity and demanding to be heard.”

A reception and art show celebrating the book’s release will be held Feb. 9 from 5-8 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson.

A limited first edition of 1,000 copies of Images from the Edge is available for sale at Lemuria Books in Jackson, Square Books in Oxford and at Mississippi State Hospital’s gift shop on the hospital’s Whitfield campus. The price is $24.95. All proceeds will benefit the Stubbs Homeless Program art and writing workshops. For more information, please call Friends of MSH at (601) 351-8018.

Crews Named Top 40 Under 40

Rachel Crews, director of marketing and public relations at Central Mississippi Medical Center was recently named to the Mississippi Business Journal’s list of Top 40 Under 40 business leaders. The Mississippi Business Journal established the Top 40 Under 40 program to recognize young leaders for achievement in both the business world and their communities.

Crews received her Bachelors Degree from the University of Arkansas at Monticello in 1996 and a Master of Science Degree in Management from Belhaven College in 2003.

She is a Member of the Mississippi Hospital Association’s Society for Healthcare Marketing & Public Relations who recently named her the 2005 Junior Professional of the Year for her outstanding contributions to health care marketing and public relations. Crews is a Past-President of the Jackson Advertising Federation and a Member of the American Advertising Federations. In 2005, she was recognized as the President of the Year – Division IV award by the 7th District Advertising Federation and National President of the Year - Division IV by the American Advertising Federation.

She is an Ambassador for the Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce, a Board Member for the Government Relations Committee for the Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce, a Member of the Ad Review Board for Better Business Bureau, and a Member of the Public Relations Association of Mississippi. She is a member of the Mississippi Jaycees who presented her with the Jaycee of the Year Award in 1998.

Crews and her husband, Michael have a three-year-old daughter named Lunden. The family resides in Brandon, MS, where they attend Pinelake Baptist Church.

Surgical Anesthesia Associates Receives MGMA Award

Surgical Anesthesia Associates, PA, was recently recognized by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) as a Better Performer in the MGMA Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Groups: 2005 Report Based on 2004 Data.

Surgical Anesthesia Associates, PA, includes members, David Barnett, M.D., Stephen Burney, M.D., Vinita Gulanikar, M.D., Randy Manning, M.D., Larry Nixon, M.D., Scott Steed, M.D. and Duane Williamson, M.D. According to the MGMA, their practice was classified as a Better-Performer in the performances areas of: Productivity, Capacity and Staffing. They were one of 425 medical groups selected by the MGMA for the designation.

The Medical Group Management Association, founded in 1926, is the nation's principal voice for medical group practice. MGMA's 19,500 members manage and lead more than 11,500 organizations in which more than 240,000 physicians practice. Its core purpose is to improve the effectiveness of medical group practices and the knowledge and skills of the individuals who manage and lead them.