Honorees Announced For 2014 Annual Doctors’ Day Salute

The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society, Medical Foundation of Chattanooga, Medical Alliance, and Project Access, in conjunction with BlueCross BlueShield Community Trust, are recognizing local physicians by saluting ten honorees for Doctors’ Day Appreciation. The honorees were selected from nominations submitted by local residents.

The ten honorees are:

·         Stephen M. Adams, MD, UT Family Practice

·         Susan Bhushan, MD, Galen Medical Group North

·         Michael Gallagher, MD, Chattanooga Neurosurgery & Spine

·         Monica Gefter, MD, Academic Internal Medicine

·         Michael W.

Goodman, MD, Gastroenterologist

·         James “Rob” Headrick, MD, Alliance of Cardiac, Thoracic & Vascular Surgeons

·         Louis Lambiase, MD, Academic Gastroenterology

·         Edward Peterson, MD, Southeast Eye Specialists

·         Christopher Prater, MD, Family Practice

·         K. Dodd Shumate, MD, Highland Pediatrics

National Doctors’ Day provides a time for people to show appreciation to the doctors who care for them or their loved ones. The first Doctors’ Day observance was March 30, 1933, in Winder, Ga, on the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery.  The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution commemorating Doctors’ Day on March 30, 1958. In 1990, Congress established March 30 each year as the National Doctors’ Day.

Through Project Access, more than 800 physicians provide free medical care and services to Hamilton County residents who do not have health insurance and whose income is less than 150% of the poverty level (about $29,685 for a family of three).