As the new chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dr. Ed Thompson will have the opportunity to teach the next generation of doctors to make prevention a priority.

“Prevention is the best way to deal with any disease or health problem,” he said.

The professor of medicine assumed the new chairmanship May 1, replacing Dr. Edward Meydrech who recently retired.

“I’m committing two years to this project because this state has some of the worst health problems in the country,” Thompson said. “Making sure that every student who graduates from this institution learns basic principals of preventive medicine is crucial to changing that.”

Dr. Dan Jones, vice chancellor for health affairs, said he was grateful to Thompson for his decision to lead the Department of Preventive Medicine.

“In his two-year tenure as chair, he will lead the department through an evaluation of how it should be organized to best meet the needs of this state and this institution,” Jones said. “I have asked Dr. Thompson to review key external relationships, including the relationship with the State Department of Health and Jackson State University’s emerging programs in public health.

“He is uniquely qualified to lead our department during this time. He is nationally recognized in the field of public health, the former state health officer for Mississippi and, most recently, deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

A native of Wesson, Thompson received the bachelor’s degree in 1969 from Millsaps College and a medical degree in 1979 from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. In 1982, Thompson earned the master’s in public health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Thompson served as Mississippi’s state epidemiologist from 1983-1993 and as Mississippi’s state health officer from 1993-2002.

Prior to joining the medical center in 2006, Thompson spent three years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC) as its chief of public health practice and as deputy director for public health services. While on faculty at the medical center, he served for one year as special advisor for health promotion to the director of the CDC.

Thompson served a four-year term on the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practice (ACIP). He also served on the advisory council to the director of the CDC and was a member of the Department of Health and Human Services secretary’s advisory council on public health preparedness.

He is past president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, past president of the national Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, and past president of the Mississippi Public Health Association.

Board-certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine, Thompson is the author or co-author of numerous publications and a member of the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association.

“My overriding goal is to look at, maintain and improve the quality of instruction that is given to our medical students,” he said. “Our fundamental purpose is to teach our students and that is my first priority.”