Advocacy for Family Medicine is Dr. David Wheat's #1 Priority

Advocacy for Family Medicine isDr. David Wheat’s #1 Priority

ACADEMY

“We need our Academy to be a strong voice for family physicians. No one is going to protect our specialty more than [MAFP].”

Dr. David B. Wheat of Clinton accepted the gavel of MAFP leadership July 24 at the Annual Dinner, succeeding Dr. Katie Patterson of Indianola. He will lead the MAFP in the coming year and chair the Board of Directors.

Dr. Wheat, a family physician who has earned the AAFP Fellow distinction, owns and operates Clinton Family Care in Clinton. Dr. Wheat began service on the Board of Directors in 2014 and 2015 as the District 4 representative. He was then elected secretary in 2016 and served as president-elect in 2017.

Dr. Wheat and his wife, Sherry, have been married 40 years. They have two children and one grandson. The Wheats live in Clinton.

WHEAT’S BACKGROUND

A native of Stuttgart, Arkansas, Dr. Wheat graduated from Stuttgart High School.

Wheat recalls becoming familiar with family medicine as a young boy. “I was delivered by a family physician, Dr. Fred Stone,” Dr. Wheat said. “He made house calls when I was sick or broke my ankle. I played with his kids and went to church with his family. I was cared for throughout my life by Dr. Stone. You notice I didn’t say treated -- I was taken care of by Dr. Stone. I looked up to Dr. Stone and he obviously had a significant influence in my life.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree at Arkansas Tech University in Russelville, Dr. Wheat earned his master’s degree in physiology from Mississippi State University. He was then accepted at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“After I was accepted to medical school,

Dr. Wheat owns and operates Clinton Family Care in Clinton.

and came back home for a weekend, Dr. Stone wanted me to come by and see him,” Dr. Wheat explained. “I went to his office and we visited over coffee. He congratulated me on medical school, then told me that he wasn’t going to tell me how to study for gross anatomy or histology. He encouraged me to become involved in the political arena because people who are not physicians were making decisions that were going to affect medicine, our patients and how we practiced in our clinics. Those same words were true back in the mid 70’s and are still true today. Those words have stuck with me for years.”

As a medical student at UMMC, Dr. Wheat served as president of the Family Practice Club and became involved in AAFP, attending the AAFP National Conference for Residents and Students. Dr. Wheat

completed his residency at Anniston Family Practice in Birmingham, Alabama, before practicing in Mississippi and Alabama for several years.

Wheat has practiced in Clinton since 1997, first at Methodist Family Practice, then at MEA Medical Clinic, before hanging out his own shingle in private practice at Clinton Family Care in 2001.

ADVOCACY IMPORTANCE

Dr. Wheat has articulated advocacy as his number one priority for his year as president, and he said being unified behind the Academy is of utmost importance. “We need our Academy to be a strong voice for family physicians,” Dr. Wheat reiterated. “No one is going to protect our specialty more than our state Academy. No one speaks more for us than our Academy.”

Wheat has set as a priority invigorating the key physician program so that if lobbying a particular legislator is necessary, MAFP will know a physician member who has a personal relationship with that legislator. Called the Academy Advocate program, members have used the program’s form (see page 18) to formally let MAFP know their relationships with local and state elected officials. “The most important part of a lobbying effort is a direct conversation with a constituent,” he explained. “We must get members involved at the grassroots level to contact their senator or representative personally.”

Since physicians hold a lot of sway in our local communities, we must use that to the Academy’s advantage, Wheat said. “We as physicians maintain a level of respect and authority that no other profession comes close to. We have a voice that people will listen to and in order to be heard, we must speak as a group.”

AVIATION INTEREST

An avid aviator, Dr. Wheat is a member of the Civil Aviation Medical Association and is a Senior Aviation Medical Examiner – FAA. He owns his own Cessna private plane and says flying was his first dream.

“I wanted to be a fighter pilot,” Dr. Wheat said. “I tried to join the Air Force 4 times — once after college, once after I was accepted to medical school, and twice after I became a physician, but for one reason or another, it just didn’t work out. I finally realized that God didn’t want me in the military. He did, however, give me an avenue so that I was able to learn to fly.”

CALLING, NOT A PROFESSION

Dr. Wheat said he believes he was called to be a family physician and truly enjoys his work.

“The things that happened to me and the way events occurred in my journey to become a family physician, many people would say were simply coincidences, but I know in my heart that God has put me where I am today,” he continued. “I feel that my practice is as much a ministry as it is a medical practice, just as I am sure many of you do. There is no other specialty in medicine that allows us to be so much a part of our patients’ lives than family medicine. We become a part of their families and they a part of ours, we laugh with them, we cry with them and we pray with them.”