A cadre of young orthopedists at the University of Mississippi Medical Center have teamed to provide a center for the total care of all hip problems and to raise awareness about a poorly understood cause of hip pain: hip impingement.

According to Dr. Jason Craft, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery, some patients with very subtle hip deformities can have significant hip pain. Too often, this is diagnosed as a strain or tendonitis, when the main cause may be hip impingement.

Technically known as femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), hip impingement is a mechanical disorder of the hip where there is a loss of congruence between the ball and socket as the hip rotates. This abnormal motion leads to stiffness and pain, causes labral tears and cartilage degeneration and may lead to early arthritis. As a newly

This fall, medical students will have two new faculty members in student affairs to guide them on their journey to becoming physicians.

Dr. Jerry Clark, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, has been named associate dean for student affairs in the School of Medicine, replacing longtime Associate Dean Dr. Lincoln Arceneaux who retired June 30. Dr. Loretta Jackson-Williams, associate professor of emergency medicine, also will be assistant dean for academic affairs. Both appointments were effective July 1.

Clark said these are exciting times for the school, with class expansion among the many changes on the horizon.

Lorrie Albright’s son Avery seemed healthy at birth, but by the time he entered his fourth month of life, she knew something was wrong.

“He was pretty much dying, and we couldn’t figure out why,” she said.

Avery had a bloated belly and skinny limbs.

Hope arrived at Avery’s bed in the form of Dr. Richard Miller, pediatric surgeon and longtime faculty member of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Avery was diagnosed with Miller’s enteritis (a condition named for the doctor treating it), so Miller removed the part of Avery’s intestine that died and put the healthy parts together.

A child who was supposed to have never lived to see his first birthday has now celebrated 10 of them. Avery’s care by Miller moved Albright so much that she decided

Dr. Charles “Catfish” Allen died June 15 and took with him one of the Medical Center’s historic landmarks. He was 78.

He was a member of the Medical Center’s first graduating medical school class, the first MDs who were trained entirely in Mississippi. By virtue of his place in the alphabet, he was the first person ever to receive a four-year medical degree in Mississippi.

If he were only a footnote in our history, we would have less reason to mourn him. He gave us so much more. He was a joyful man who loved people, and people – in turn – loved him. He did not have a life without sadness, but he turned his cheek to pessimism and chose generosity and cheer instead.

On the 45th anniversary of the world’s first lung transplant into man that brought the University of Mississippi Medical Center into the nation’s consciousness, a key participant in the groundbreaking procedure was back at the Medical Center.

Dr. Martin L. Dalton, Jr., dean of the School of Medicine at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., recalled the events surrounding that historic four-hour operation to a capacity crowd of Medical Center faculty and residents during the annual James D. Hardy Lectureship in Surgery, “James D. Hardy and the First Lung Transplant,” June 11.

Consumer Reports has rated University of Mississippi Health Care (UMHC) the state’s leader in conservative treatment for certain serious chronic conditions.

In May, Consumer Reports launched a new page on its Web site (www.consumerreports.com) that helps consumers compare how intensely hospitals treat patients with conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, dementia, or many types of cancer. The information is based on a 2008 study by the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and additional research by Dartmouth Medical School faculty.

Findings of the study of more than 4.7 million Medicare patients at thousands of hospitals across the country from 2001-05 suggest significant variations in the way people with serious illnesses were treated during the last two years of their lives. According to the study, some regions used two or three times the medical and financial resources than others.