ACP member since 1993
The Chapter Centennial Legacy Award celebrates ACP's centennial by recognizing one influential chapter member who served the chapter and made a significant impact on the chapter's viability. The award winner should exemplify ACP's core values, including leadership, excellence, respect, compassion, professionalism, and responsibility.
Joseph H. Bates, MD, MACP, served as a pulmonary disease specialist and as chair of the department of medicine at the VA Hospital in Little Rock, AK, before his retirement. Dr. Bates also served as deputy director and chief science officer of the Arkansas Department of Heath until he retired from teaching.
In addition to these roles, he has authored many papers including one that proved that tuberculosis could be treated outside of the hospital or sanitarium. This paper is well-known in the medical community, and it changed the course of the treatment of tuberculosis throughout the world. He is a former Governor of the Arkansas Chapter, a winner of the Abernathy Laureate Award, and a winner of the Askepion Award from the Arkansas Medical Society.