Aaron Shirley, MD, Continues to Break the Mold of Healthcare Delivery for the Underserved 

Aaron Shirley, MD, the visionary behind the medical mall, hasn’t been resting on his laurels since bringing to fruition the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center. Now celebrating 15 years, the one-stop shop healthcare facility for the underserved represents one of the nation’s most unique community healthcare endeavors. Mississippi Medical News spoke with Shirley about early challenges, and his ambitious plans. See related story below.

What was the greatest challenge of bringing the medical mall concept to fruition?

I’d say it was lining up the required potential quality tenants, with quality meaning the ability to pay rent, before the bank would make a loan for us to acquire the facility. If I recall correctly, there was a threshold of somewhere in the neighborhood of nearly 400,000 square feet committed—about half the mall space—before they would give us what we needed to acquire the facility and renovate the space for those tenants.

When did the Jackson Medical Mall truly begin to fulfill its potential?

After we settled in with major anchor tenants, people began to take notice that if we were successful accommodating those major tenants, then smaller prospective ones felt comfortable about opportunities that came forward afterward, such as the Jackson Heart Study.

During your recent visit to Iran, you studied their healthcare system. Can you tell us about the version of Iran’s house health concept that you’re looking to implement in Mississippi?

I developed a friendship with a professor at JSU—one of our original tenants—who’s a dual citizen of Iran and the U.S. That friendship presented opportunities for collaboration on one or two small issues related to public health. He was aware of my attempts and frustrations to try to make a difference in the Mississippi Delta with some of their health problems. He reminded me that many of the problems we were trying to solve there had been faced in Iran and resolved with much success.

He invited me to take a look, which I did. I was impressed with both the simplicity and effectiveness of that system to the point where, over a short period of time, we were able to build a formal relationship and sign a memorandum of understanding between JSU, the Jackson Medical Mall and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran.

It’s evolved to the point where JSU, in working with the Iranians, has been able to create what we refer to as the Global Center for Training and Certification of Community Health Workers. It’s very timely because we (just sent) a delegation to Iran to begin formalizing this relationship and to begin to bring back the core faculty that will staff this global center.

The centerpiece of the model is a Health House that’s staffed with community health workers we’ll be training. As of now, we’re in the process of establishing two Health Houses in Hinds County and we’ve identified several communities in the Mississippi Delta that we’ll link and duplicate there.

We saw it could be done in a country with a fraction of the resources that we have. They simply had the determination. If they could do it there with almost no resources, we should be able to do it here with our vast resources. Nobody’s doing anything like it in the U.S.

What’s next for Jackson Medical Mall?

Until a year ago, our emphasis was the development and services provided inside the fence at the Jackson Medical Mall. More recently, we’ve had opportunities to grow beyond the grounds where the mall sits.

There’s a neighborhood to the east that’s been in a state of decline. We’ve recently acquired properties—about 25 parcels of land—to restore that neighborhood by establishing a village of sorts. We have four housing sites under development. That’s going to be our next major project. We see the mall as the catalyst for restoring the entire neighborhood.

Related article

 A Lifetime of Firsts

When Aaron Shirley, MD, took his pediatrics residency at the University of Mississippi in 1965, he became the first African-American to do so. Five years later, he helped establish the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center, which became the largest community health center in the state.

Shirley, who graduated from Tougaloo College and Meharry Medical School, then established a comprehensive school-based clinic to provide health and counseling services to help reduce rising teen pregnancy rates, drug abuse, teen violence, sexually transmitted diseases and mental health issues. The clinic became a national model for school-based clinics.

In 1993, he received the “Genius Award,” more formally known as the MacAuthur Fellowship. Two years ago, Gov. Haley Barbour bestowed him the Governor’s Initiative for Volunteer Excellence (GIVE). Also in 2009, the Mississippi Medical and Surgical Association honored him for changing the course of history at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, naming his contributions to health and the community as The Shirley Society. Shirley, whose vision brought to life the Jackson Medical Mall, chairs the medical mall’s foundation board.

When asked why he never considered running for political office after birthing the Jackson Medical Mall, Shirley laughed. “That would’ve killed it! For a project like this to be successful, you have to be as apolitical as possible,” said the father of four and long-time husband to Ollye Shirley.

Editor’s Note: This article marks the second in a 3-part series focusing on the Jackson Medical Mall. In April, Mississippi Medical News will focus on long-term goals of the Jackson Heart Study.

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