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Math’s loss is medicine’s gain.

When the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) installed Dr. J. Mack Worthington as the organization’s 153rd president at the annual meeting in late April, it’s a moment that easily might not have happened because Worthington set out to be a math teacher … not an MD.

“Education has been my life,” he stated simply. “I got a BS in mathematics at the school just down the road with the intention of teaching in high school.”

However, after receiving his undergraduate at East Carolina College and his master’s degree in mathematics from North Carolina State University, Worthington somewhat surprisingly accepted a position as an aerosystems engineer with General Dynamics in Texas. It was during that time period that he met his future wife Donna, an Air Force nurse stationed at a hospital in the Fort Worth area.

After several years in the corporate world, Worthington began contemplating a career change. With his love of numbers and logic, he considered going back to his first choice and teaching math at the college level or perhaps becoming an accountant or a lawyer.

“Every time I thought about medicine, I thought this is an area where you can really help people,” he said of his ultimate decision.

It has also been an area that has allowed him to draw on his passion for teaching. In a medical career spanning almost three decades, Worthington has spent much of his time working with medical students and young physicians in teaching hospitals and programs in Tennessee.

Once he decided to go into healthcare, Worthington received his medical degree from the University of Texas-Galveston. Upon completing his residency in June 1978, he went into the Air Force where he worked with the residency training program at Eglin AFB.

After finishing his Air Force stint, the board-certified family medicine practitioner began looking at long-term opportunities.

“I looked at a lot of different places coming out of the Air Force,” he recalled. “I had several offers. There was one place in North Carolina I was very interested in, but they didn’t seem that interested in me,” he added, with a laugh.

While weighing his options, fate intervened. A physician friend of Worthington’s flew out on a plane bound for Kansas City next to a gentlemen with whom he struck up a conversation. It turns out the friend’s seat mate chaired the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, or UTHSC.

“My friend told him a bunch of lies about me … about how good I was ... so when the chair got to Kansas City, he called me for an interview,” Worthington said with typical humility. “Otherwise, I don’t know that I would have even thought about Memphis.”

He and Donna visited the city and really liked it, so Worthington signed on with UTHSC as an assistant professor of family medicine and program director for the family medicine residency training. Of course, the minute he accepted the position, his first choice in North Carolina called to see if he was still interested in their opening. Worthington thanked them politely but said “no” and never looked back.

“It all turned out great. I really enjoyed my time in Memphis,” he said.

However, after 15 years, the medical school asked Worthington to accept a new challenge to create a Department of Family Medicine in Chattanooga. Worthington said it was a hard decision to make the 350-mile move. Not only did he love his work in Memphis, but by now he had a family –– daughters Julie and Christy and son Josh –– that was settled in the community.

However, he ultimately couldn’t pass up the opportunity to launch a department from scratch.

“The university and Erlanger Hospital were both very supportive of this endeavor,” he added. “Everybody was very generous and very supportive … I was fortunate to get my own building –– state-of-the-art –– and very fortunate to find a top-notch group of faculty to join me plus fortunate to have attracted outstanding students and residents.”

Today, there are a total of eight different residency programs at Erlanger with approximately 150 residents training in Chattanooga.

“At any given month, we may have as many as 20 visiting students, as well,” he continued.

In addition to his teaching and leadership duties, Worthington also has a thriving private practice in family medicine. It is in this capacity that some of the very real issues and concerns facing today’s physicians are driven home. With only two physicians in his practice still willing to cover obstetrics, Worthington is on call every other night.

As much as he loves bringing newborns into this world, a little more sleep might be nice, too. However, Worthington said that with today’s medical liability climate, it’s very difficult to attract physicians into high-risk fields. It’s one of the reasons he is so passionate about reform.

“Clearly, I think medical liability reform and establishing caps has been a priority of the TMA for several years,” Worthington stated. “Unfortunately, it’s been somewhat elusive here in Tennessee.”

He continued, “It’s a major concern because of the effects it is going to have on access to care. It’s sad, but oftentimes things have to get to a crisis situation … or beyond crisis … before things get done. I hope that doesn’t have to happen in Tennessee.”

While it doesn’t look like medical liability reform will occur in the immediate future, Worthington is pleased that other issues are being resolved. He called the settlement of the BlueCross BlueShield lawsuit (Medical News, June 2007) “a big step in the right direction.” Although, he said, it doesn’t solve all issues, he noted the settlement does eliminate a lot of administrative hassles and clinical coverage barriers that will ultimately allow providers to focus more time on patient care.

Each TMA president generally espouses a public health issue. For Worthington, his concern is over smoking and preventative education to keep Tennesseans from ever picking up the habit. Three months into his tenure as president, there is a lot of good news on this front.

With the Tennessee Legislature enacting a fairly broad ban on workplace smoking and tacking on a significant cigarette tax, Worthington is hopeful that meaningful change on this subject is possible … and high time.

“When should the general public have known smoking was bad for you?” he questioned. “In 1964, the surgeon general came out with how bad smoking is for you. For years, the tobacco companies said smoking wasn’t addictive, and that was an out-and-out lie.”

Worthington said he regularly works with patients who have been greatly affected by their smoking habit, but stresses the real focus has to be prevention among young people so that they never face the addiction.

Another subject to tackle during his tenure as TMA president is seeking out future leadership.

“I want to try to spend some time this year talking to students about the profession,” he said, adding he will also speak with residents and young physicians, “ –– about what we can do better and get input on how to make the profession stronger,” he continued.

For the consummate educator, it’s a natural role.


July 2007

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