Champions of Health Care
America’s complex and technologically driven medical system is as sophisticated, complex and expensive as any in the world. But within that vast system are those who still put the “care” in health care and who we recognize as the winners of this year’s Champions of Health Care awards.Edge magazine, in partnership with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, received more than 150 nominations from the public about health care providers, administrators and volunteers who have made health care better in Chattanooga. From among those nominations, a panel of judges comprised of top leaders from the medical society and each of Chattanooga’s three major hospital systems – Erlanger Health System, CHI Memorial Hospital, Parkridge Health System -picked the winners that we salute in the following pages.The Champions of Health Care award winners recognize those who have tackled major community health problems, starting programs to tackle obesity and smoking, adding physical therapy training in Chattanooga, and bringing needed medical services to those without health insurance. Others are recognized for new approaches, strong leadership and simple acts of kindness during their lifetimes of achievement and service.In our second year of the awards, we have quickly discovered the rich talent and commitment from those who work every day to keep us healthy.
Dr. Robert Bowers still remembers the wonder he felt the first time he watched a physician at work.
Bowers was about six years old, and his father had contracted tuberculosis. Bowers watched the doctor take an X-ray of his father’s chest, examine it, then translate the mysterious image into an explanation of the disease in the father’s lungs.
“That doctor was able to go into a room, and read that thing, and tell my father what he had inside of him,” says Bowers. “He could see it, and help fix it. That just fascinated me.”
Bowers’ father recovered from the illness, but the interaction with that physician stuck with Bowers over the years. The two-fold ability to understand problems others couldn’t see, and to take action to help fix such problems: this seemed like a powerful responsibility. And that deep sense of duty remains at the heart of his work as medical director for Volunteers in Medicine Chattanooga, Inc., a faith-based nonprofit that provides primary care to people in the region without access to health insurance.