Mastership

Those elected to Mastership should be citizen physicians, educational innovators, humanists, and learner-teachers who inspire others to seek high standards and excellence in our cherished specialty of internal medicine.

Memorial Medical Group Pulmonologist/Critical Care Specialist Ben Thompson, MD, has been elected to Mastership by the American College of Physicians. Over the past year, unknown to Dr. Thompson, a number of his colleagues and peers have been assembling a dossier outlining the impact he has had on the community, the profession of medicine, medical science and his patients.

“It was a tremendous honor and really a huge surprise to get this news,” Dr. Thompson says. “It’s just wonderful to be recognized by your peers after practicing medicine here at Memorial for so many years, truly an honor.”

According to the American College of Physicians, Mastership is conferred only on a select number of worthy candidates who are deemed distinguished through a combination of achievements, including the practice of internal medicine, academic contributions to our specialty, and service to the College. In making decisions about each candidate’s suitability for Mastership, the Committee considered qualities such as strength of character, integrity, perseverance, leadership, compassion, and devotion, as well as clinical expertise and commitment to advancing the art and science of medicine.

Emphasis was placed on service as a teacher and mentor, advocacy for quality in internal medicine, a commitment to social justice, deep interest in people, and the creation of communities of medicine. Additionally, those elected to Mastership should be “citizen physicians,” educational innovators, humanists, and learner-teachers who inspire others to seek high standards and excellence in our cherished specialty of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Thompson has been at Memorial since 1982 and has watched the hospital grow and expand services along the way. He has watched it reach beyond the walls of Memorial Hospital itself, into a full-fledged health system that has four campuses and numerous clinics spread throughout the Lake Charles area.

“Watching this hospital grow into what it is today has been a joy to watch and be a part of,” Dr. Thompson says. “Having people put their lives and health into your hands is truly an honor and a privilege in itself, one that I have always taken very seriously. I feel very fortunate to have been blessed enough to be able to go through this life as a physician. An honor like this is very nice, but pales in comparison to people trusting you with their lives every day.”