Legacy of Excellence Digital Flipbook

LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE: C. RON CANNON, MD PRESIDENT FROM 2005 – 2006

W hen asked about key influences in his life that led to a career in otolaryngology, C. Ron Cannon, MD, responded, “Actually, I just fell into it by happenstance. [I] didn’t know anything about the specialty, as a medical student I did not do any rotations and knew very little, [I] probably had the common misconceptions that most people have about the specialty. I had spent my formative years in a very small town. My dad was a primary care physician. I had seen some of the things that he had done, and I always thought that I wanted to be a surgeon of some type. So, my plan was to be a general surgeon in a small rural setting.” Dr. Cannon attended medical school at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. To better care for his patients’ medical problems, he completed an internal medicine internship. Thereafter he began a general surgery residency but found that it ultimately did not suit his style. He began looking around at other specialties and soon discovered otolaryngology. As he recalled, “The ENT residents were at the hospital doing long, long hours [and] difficult surgeries yet they seemed to be very happy with what they were doing.” He found a book on otolaryngology by Stanley N. Farb, MD, which he read at night on surgery calls, and that became his first introduction to the specialty. Meanwhile, when a disagreement between the otolaryngologists and general plastic surgeons at the University of Mississippi Medical Center arising from a scope-of-practice issue over who would perform certain procedures in the head and neck led to dissolution of the program and, the otolaryngology residents eventually left the program and had to find other training opportunities. Dr. Cannon completed his medical training at the University of Virginia School of Medicine after transferring from Mississippi. He trained

there under the tutelage of a superb faculty including AAO-HNS/F Past President Robert W. Cantrell, MD, who became a lifelong mentor to Dr. Cannon. He returned to Mississippi, married, and opened a private practice, quickly becoming involved in regional and state medical societies. He was president of the Mississippi Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Association, the Mississippi Louisiana Ophthalmology Association, and the Mississippi Society of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. He was named chief of surgery, chief of staff, and eventually medical director of River Oaks Hospital in Flowood, Mississippi.

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