Posted by Bill Osborne on Nov 08, 2019
 

Dr. Claude Brunson, Executive Director of the Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA) spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the Clubs November 5, 2019 meeting. Prior to joining the MSMA, he was President of MSMA, Senior Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor for External Affairs and a Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). Dr. Brunson received his medical training at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) and worked at UMMC for over 30 years. He retired from UMMC prior to becoming Executive Director of MSMA. 

 

He started his presentation by paraphrasing the Vision and Mission of MSMA  which are, respectively, 

 

“To be an essential part of every Mississippi physician's professional life” and the 

 

“Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA) is a physician organization serving as an advocate for its members and their patients.”

 

A key objective of MSMA is to increase the availability of medical care for Mississippians, particularly in rural areas. He cited that Mississippi rates nearly last in the no. of physicians per capita in the states of the United States. The state is addressing that problem by building a new medical school at UMMC that will increase the size of medical school classes by nearly 50% and by the opening of a medical school at William Carey University.

 

The second objective of MSMA is to increase the no. of medical school graduates that remain to practice in Mississippi. Achieving this objective will increase the accessibility of physicians to Mississippians. 

 

We thank Dr. Brunson for his service and commitment to Mississippi Medicine and for his presentation to our club. He (right) is shown in the following photo with Rotarian Dr. Patrick Smith, a long-time colleague, and friend who introduced him to the club.