Candidate Statement: As an active member of SC ACP Council for 23 years, I am committed to the continued growth and success of ACP. I have been a practicing general internist at MUSC and enjoy caring for the aging, medically complex patients. As an educator, I have watched IM trainees build caring relationships yet struggle with choosing an IM career where relationships are most fulfilling but recognize the administrative burden. Now as Division Director, I am acutely aware of the health policies which detract from the successful pursuit of a fulfilling patient care career. In that leadership role, I see the critically significant responsibility of leaders to advocate for health policies supporting ACP to make IM practice a sustainable career. As Governor, I would work on advocacy, education, and policy change improving patient care for all, supporting IM physicians in their daily work, decreasing administrative burden, and expanding membership of our chapter.
Medical School Education: Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
Post-Doctoral Training: Medical University of South Carolina
Board Certifications: Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine
Present Employment Position: Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, DOM; Division Director, General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, MUSC
ACP Chapter and Leadership Activities: Governor’s Council since 2001; Chair, Scientific Program Committee since 2005; Associate and Student Poster Competition Session, Scientific Meeting 2001-2020; Recipient, James A. McFarland Award 2013
ACP National Activities: Fellowship 2003; Membership 1994; Leadership Day, Washington DC 2003-2008; Judge, Associate and Student Poster Competition, Internal Medicine Meeting 2001
Other Appointments/Activities: Division Director, GIM, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, MUSC; Vice Chair, Clinical Affairs, Department of Medicine, MUSC; Associate CMIO, MUSC; MUSC Committees: Informatics (Large number of IT committees with current emphasis on policy/strategy/wellness i.e.); Health Information Management, IS Sustain and Maintenance; MyChart Steering; Epic Ambulatory Steering; Clinical Vice Chair, PMOC for each DOM Division, University Compliance, DOM Leadership Council, Executive Committee; Patient Experience Executive Committee; Education-IM Resident Clinical Competency Committee; Community Service, Church activities
Areas of Professional Interest and Expertise: Residency Education - For over 20 years, I have supported medical education supervising various learners but most consistently our Internal Medicine Residents; Informatics - My interest in Informatics has been how we can utilize the EHR as a tool to advance patient care and safety, improve clinical outcomes, and perform quality improvement projects; Primary Care/General Internal Medicine
Candidate Statement: I would consider it an honor, privilege, and responsibility to take on the title of Governor for this state chapter. In 2012 when I moved from Grants, New Mexico to my new residence in Spartanburg, South Carolina, I said goodbye to being a member of the New Mexico chapter counsel and said hello to the local chapter here. I have worked with past and present governors to coordinate and organize yearly state meetings. I have served as member of our state chapter council. I find a great deal of satisfaction working in the background helping other get a job done and done correctly. Over the last forty years I have had the privilege to mentor and teach both medical students, residents and fellows in training. I would consider it an honor to become the next governor of the South Carolina chapter of the ACP.
Medical School Education: University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB)
Post-Doctoral Training: University of Tennessee College of Medicine (Erlanger), Chattanooga TN
Board Certifications: Internal Medicine
Present Employment Position: Hospitalist; Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (MUSC AHEC)
ACP Chapter and Leadership Activities: Organizing help with Chapter Meetings (Inviting speakers, gathering questions from speakers, successfully submitting questions and answers for attendees CME/MOC credit via ACP) since 2017; Member, Council 9 plus years
ACP National Activities: Fellowship 2016 (I achieved this by voluntarily completing MOC by taking ABIM Board exam in October 2015. I had been grandfathered because I had earned original certificate prior to 1990.); Attendee, Internal Medicine Meeting 2017 & 2018, COVID absence, & 2023
Other Appointments/Activities: Assistant Professor, MUSC AHEC; Core Faculty, Spartanburg Regional Transitional Residency Program; Member, Clinical Competency Committee; Member, Clinical Program Evaluation Committee; Vice Department Chair of Medicine, Spartanburg Hospital for Restorative Care (LTACH); Part-time Teaching, Department of Palliative Medicine, Spartanburg Regional Medical Center; Member, Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
Areas of Professional Interest and Expertise: Peer Review: Working to get my younger colleagues to chart accurately, i.e., not just templating normal ROS and Physical Exams when actual patient sitting in plain day light is covered in pathology that never makes it to the dark hidden wells known as the electronic medical record. Guess I am just old school and don't feel the patient should get in the way of our work as physicians. I push hard on getting others that I teach and work with to learn how to paint a picture of each our unique patients rather than just making them into a long list of medical problems; Working to be a Value-Based Internal Medicine Specialist: To be a healthcare model that encourages my peers, residents and medical students to think before mindlessly ordering a panoply of test and studies. To see that a good history and physical exam are of equal importance to supporting labs and x-rays. That the "laying on of the hands" is still a part of the unspoken agreement between physician and patient.
