WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has named Oscar F. Lovelace, Jr.,
MD, the national 2015 Family Physician of the Year at its annual Assembly. The
award honors one outstanding American family physician who provides patients
with compassionate, comprehensive care, and serves as a role model in his or
her community, to other health professionals, and to residents and medical
students.
Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Lovelace has been a
practicing family physician for more than 26 years. In 1988, he founded
Lovelace Family Medicine in his grandparents' hometown of Prosperity, South
Carolina, a small, rural farming community in Newberry County.
Currently the practice employs 38 staff, including three board
certified family physicians, 11 nurses and three nurse practitioners. Lovelace
Family Medicine provides 8,000 patients with the full scope of family medicine
services for patients of all ages, from obstetrics to geriatrics, as well as
office-based and hospital care. Practice services include comprehensive
wellness and preventive care, prenatal care, acute care, chronic disease
management, weight management counseling, a full service laboratory and
corporate wellness programs.
Lovelace and his colleagues have hosted more than 200 students
and residents from all areas of the country for a four-week elective during
which they encounter the challenges and rewards of practicing rural family
medicine. The goal of this program is to increase interest in practicing in an
underserved area. Many of Lovelace's former students and physician colleagues
have served on medical missions, both at home and abroad.
Lovelace
is committed to ensuring that all people, especially the underserved, have
access to high quality primary care in a patient-centered medical home. During
Lovelace's second year of solo practice, Newberry County's only OB-GYN died.
This left Lovelace as the only physician in three contiguous rural counties
practicing obstetrics, and he delivered more than 220 babies.
Dr.
Lovelace has been a preceptor with South Carolina AHEC for many years. Because
of his outstanding involvement, Dr. Lovelace was an inaugural member of the
South Carolina AHEC Institute for Primary Care (IPC), which began in 2012. He remains active in the program and
Lovelace Family Medicine is one of the most sought after sites for rotation. As
an IPC Preceptor, Dr. Lovelace shared his model for an interprofessional
community-based weight management program that has become the basis for an
MUSC/SC AHEC telemedicine weight management project, Wellness Connect,
which began in April 2014. In addition, he and his wife also have hosted IPC
social events for medical, advanced practice nursing, and PA students
interested in joining the Institute. Over the years, many practitioners
have been attracted to the practice established by Dr. Lovelace in Prosperity.
Six physicians and one nurse practitioner have received funding from the SC
AHEC Rural Physician Program to practice at Lovelace Family Medicine.
South
Carolina AHEC congratulates Dr. Lovelace on this prestigious recognition of he
many years of outstanding work!
To find out
more about Dr. Lovelace, watch his speech from the assembly, and view his
introduction video, visit http://www.aafp.org/events/assembly/about/2014-assembly-highlights.html.
Comments
Post a Comment