Nurse practitioner, physician lauded as HPV Clinical Champions

Nurse practitioner, physician lauded as HPV Clinical Champions

Published on Monday, December 16, 2024

By: Gary Pettus, [email protected]

Medical Center faculty and staff often are recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for their academic or medical achievements. These accolades place UMMC among health science centers worldwide.

Nurse practitioner, physician lauded as HPV Clinical Champions

Medical Center faculty and staff often are recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for their academic or medical achievements. These accolades place UMMC among health science centers worldwide.

Bethany Sabins, left, and Dr. Christy Haygood accept their awards from the American Cancer Society.

Bethany Sabins, a gynecologic oncology nurse practitioner at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Dr. Christy Haygood, a UMMC affiliate faculty member and gynecologic oncologist, have been named 2024 HPV Clinical Champions by the American Cancer Society (ACS).

The award is a tribute to their efforts to increase cervical cancer screenings and improve vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which infects each year about 13 million Americans, including teens, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Spread through intimate contact, it can cause cancers later in life.

A joint effort of the ACS, CDC and Association of American Cancer Institutes, the award program was established in 2017 to recognize clinicians, clinics, practices, groups and health systems strongly committed to fostering HPV vaccination in their communities. The ACS named champions from 25 states this year.

The work of Sabins and Haygood "has made a profound impact on women in Mississippi," the ACS said in a statement.

"They are valuable members of the Mississippi HPV Roundtable and dedicated to increasing HPV vaccination rates, which could help eliminate cervical cancer in Mississippi."

Sabins earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Mississippi College in May 2009 and began working as a surgery nurse at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. In 2012, she earned a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Southern Mississippi and has been working as a family nurse practitioner with the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at UMMC since that time.

At UMMC, Sabins has been influential in the See, Test & Treat initiative to screen patients for breast and cervical cancer.

Haygood, a 2009 graduate of the UMMC School of Medicine, completed a residency and a fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.

She is a gynecological oncologist at St. Dominic Hospital and chair of the Mississippi Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

"The work that both Dr. Haygood and Bethany have tirelessly put into improving patient outcomes and education related to HPV vaccination and screening deserves this outstanding recognition," said Dr. Mildred Ridgway, professor of OB-GYN, chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and associate chief medical officer of the adult hospital at UMMC.

"Mississippi has some of the highest rates of cervical cancer-related mortality and one of the worst vaccination rates in the United States. We need to continue in our mission to educate women and providers across Mississippi about HPV and its association with gynecologic cancer.

"Dr. Haygood and Bethany both are true HPV Clinical Champions."

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