Richard A. Smith, MD, MPH, FACPM will deliver Keynote at 2008 Rural & Remote Health Conference
Richard Smith as a MEDEX teacher,
in Micronesia
in Micronesia
Dr. Richard A. Smith, the founder of MEDEX, is one of the pioneers of the modern physician assistant profession. The MEDEX program he introduced
prepares people from diverse backgrounds to practice medicine directly or remotely under physician supervision in medically underserved regions.
Since the program began in 1969, it has been instituted in all 50 states in the USA and is now used as a model for improving health care delivery in 82
countries of the world.
Dr. Smith first developed his interest in health care while participating in a college work-study program at a rural clinic in pre-Castro Cuba. After earning a medical degree from Howard University and an MPH from Columbia University, he worked as a public health official in the Indian Health Service in Arizona, as the Peace Corps physician in Nigeria, and later as director of the world-wide medical program for the Peace Corps, managing its health operations in 44 countries. Later, as director of staff operations for the Health and Human Services’ Office of Equal Health Opportunity, he helped end discrimination in America’s hospitals under the Medicare Program. After working in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office and serving as deputy director in the Office of International Health, he began to redirect his focus on improving the ailing health care system in the United States.
In 1969, at the University of Washington, he created a unique program he named MEDEX, from the French medécin extension. Joining Drs. Eugene Stead, Jr., of Duke University, and Hu Myers of Alderson Broaddus College, Dr. Smith introduced a program to train a new kind of health care provider—the physician assistant. The first MEDEX class was composed entirely of former military medical corpsmen, but later the training program opened its doors to nurses and allied health workers.
Since 1972, Dr. Smith has been director of the MEDEX Group and clinical professor of family practice and community health at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine. Under his leadership the MEDEX Group has provided technical assistance to eight other countries in developing new health care providers. The MEDEX Group also produced a 35 volume, 7,000 page primary health care curriculum, parts of which have been translated into 33 languages.
A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Smith has served on two World Health Organization expert committees on human resource development. He has received the Gerard B. Lambert Award for being "slightly out of step" with the rest of his profession as he successfully broke new ground with patient care innovations, the Rockefeller Public Service Award, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Distinguished Service Award for "leadership in the development of the physician assistant and nurse practitioner movement." In 1993, he was called to South Africa by Nelson Mandela to head the team designing the nation’s new national health system.
He consults and speaks frequently about primary health care for rural, urban and suburban populations.
For more details and to register on-line for the 2008 "Are Your Remotely Interested?", please visit the Conference website.
Dr. Smith first developed his interest in health care while participating in a college work-study program at a rural clinic in pre-Castro Cuba. After earning a medical degree from Howard University and an MPH from Columbia University, he worked as a public health official in the Indian Health Service in Arizona, as the Peace Corps physician in Nigeria, and later as director of the world-wide medical program for the Peace Corps, managing its health operations in 44 countries. Later, as director of staff operations for the Health and Human Services’ Office of Equal Health Opportunity, he helped end discrimination in America’s hospitals under the Medicare Program. After working in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office and serving as deputy director in the Office of International Health, he began to redirect his focus on improving the ailing health care system in the United States.
In 1969, at the University of Washington, he created a unique program he named MEDEX, from the French medécin extension. Joining Drs. Eugene Stead, Jr., of Duke University, and Hu Myers of Alderson Broaddus College, Dr. Smith introduced a program to train a new kind of health care provider—the physician assistant. The first MEDEX class was composed entirely of former military medical corpsmen, but later the training program opened its doors to nurses and allied health workers.
Since 1972, Dr. Smith has been director of the MEDEX Group and clinical professor of family practice and community health at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine. Under his leadership the MEDEX Group has provided technical assistance to eight other countries in developing new health care providers. The MEDEX Group also produced a 35 volume, 7,000 page primary health care curriculum, parts of which have been translated into 33 languages.
A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Smith has served on two World Health Organization expert committees on human resource development. He has received the Gerard B. Lambert Award for being "slightly out of step" with the rest of his profession as he successfully broke new ground with patient care innovations, the Rockefeller Public Service Award, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Distinguished Service Award for "leadership in the development of the physician assistant and nurse practitioner movement." In 1993, he was called to South Africa by Nelson Mandela to head the team designing the nation’s new national health system.
He consults and speaks frequently about primary health care for rural, urban and suburban populations.
For more details and to register on-line for the 2008 "Are Your Remotely Interested?", please visit the Conference website.
