MedWest-Haywood surgeon completes N.C. Medical Society Leadership College Local physicians represent WNC at state healthcare organization
10/27/2011
CLYDE, N.C. – Dr. Al Mina, a general surgeon with Haywood Surgical Associates, recently graduated from the North Carolina Medical Society’s Leadership College.
He was recognized Oct. 21 at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Medical Society in Raleigh for completing the selective, yearlong program that orients and trains physicians and physician assistants for possible future leadership positions at the county, state and national level.
Dr. Mina, who is a past chief of surgery and past chief of staff at MedWest-Haywood, is the second MedWest Health System physician in Haywood County to complete the prestigious program. Dr. Shannon Hunter, an otolaryngologist with Western Carolina Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists, graduated from the North Carolina Medical Society Leadership College in 2009. She is also a past chief of staff at MedWest-Haywood and is a current member of the MedWest Health System’s Board of Directors.
In addition to being dedicated to serving patients in Haywood County and Western North Carolina, both physicians say they are passionate about being health care leaders on a statewide level through their continued volunteer service with the North Carolina Medical Society.
Dr. Mina said he is involved because “medicine has a lot of issues and challenges, and I need to be part of the solution.”
“From a local care standpoint, it’s important for the citizens in Haywood County to realize their local physicians are working even behind the scenes to shape how medicine will look in Haywood and across the state in the future,” Dr. Mina said.
North Carolina Medical Society Leadership College participants work on individual projects as part of this professional development training. Dr. Mina’s project examined if MedWest-Haywood’s breast cancer nurse navigator program had had an impact on the early detection of breast cancers.
“The project did show that within a very short period of time, we’ve increased the number of mammograms done at MedWest-Haywood and have had an impact on early breast cancer detection,” Dr. Mina said.
Dr. Hunter said her ongoing work through the statewide medical society involves improving outreach and communication among health care leaders, particularly among those working in Western North Carolina.
She serves as a representative of Haywood County at the North Carolina Medical Society and as a mentor through the statewide medical society. Work she started in her leadership college project is being built upon by other local physicians who are participants in the program.
“I stay involved with the society because Raleigh’s five-and-a-half hours away, and we’re geographically isolated in Western North Carolina,” Dr. Hunter said. “It’s important to have people from the region involved with the North Carolina Medical Society to keep the western part of the state in the minds of state leaders.”
Learn more about the North Carolina Medical Society at http://www.ncmedsoc.org/ and about its Leadership College at http://www.ncmsleadershipcollege.org/.
MedWest Health System provides healthcare for the people of western North Carolina at MedWest-Harris, MedWest-Haywood and MedWest-Swain hospitals, the outpatient facility MedWest-Franklin, and through the nearly 100-member MedWest Physician Network. MedWest is affiliated with Carolinas HealthCare System. Learn more about MedWest at www.medwesthealth.org.
PHOTO CAPTION
Credit: Photo courtesy of MedWest Health System
MedWest physicians Dr. Al Mina and Dr. Shannon Hunter attended the annual meeting of the North Carolina Medical Society held recently in Raleigh. Dr. Mina was honored for completing the Society’s Leadership College, a program that orients and trains physicians and physician assistants for possible future leadership positions at the county, state and national level. Dr. Hunter completed the Leadership College in 2009.