I attended Baylor University (and actually got to see the Bears win the Southwest Conference in football and play in the Cotton Bowl while I was there - that certainly dates me) to get a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and a subsequent Masters Degree in Biology with a thesis on the Effects of Anti-Somamotropin in the Spontaneous Mammary Cancer of C3H Mice.  Although that sounds hugely boring - it should be noted that immunotherapy is now one of the hot fronts in cancer treatment research.  I was a pioneer!

I graduated from medical school at what is now University of North Texas Health Science Center, valedictorian and with honors - Summa Cum Laude.  Before you get all impressed, basically all that that showed was that I was 'trainable'.  I was accepted to a surgical residency, but decided instead to enter the practice of emergency medicine and moved to Palestine to staff Anderson County Memorial Hospital - the first time that Anderson County had full time Emergency Coverage.  Talk about jumping right into the frying pan!  The experience that I gained there and then subsequently at Trinity Valley hospital (now Palestine Regional Medical Center) has proved absolutely invaluable.

In the fall of 1990 I entered full time Family Practice and am one of the founding members of Magnolia Health Systems (formerly ETDC) - a multispecialty group with a wide array of outpatient diagnostic and therapeutic modalities available for use.  Although I still enjoy the 'urgent' type of medical conditions that I 'grew up' with during my ER days and a complicated diagnostic challenge is stimulating, the real reward to Family Practice is the personal relationships that I build with my patients and their families - so many have come to be friends.  I truly believe in and strive for preventative care and challenge my patients to take an active part in their care.  I realize that there are many excellent physicians to choose from and I'll feel privileged if you decide to use me as your physician.  I hope that we, as partners, can effectively prevent or treat any maladies that may come your way.

I am located in the Magnolia Medical Plaza building on south Loop 256 in Palestine, Texas.  Telephone / contact information and office hours are listed on this page.  We are open early in an attempt to allow visits before work or school.  As members of Magnolia Health Systems, we are able to offer multi-specialty services in a 'one stop' setting.  Specialties of Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Cardiology, Pulmonology, Gastroenterology, Pain Management & Rehab, Physical Therapy, Urology, Radiology, as well as Family Practice & Pediatric Medicine are all available within our group.  We retain a close working relationship with other physicians and specialties in the community and utilize their services and expertise when appropriate.  We continue to support the local hospital, Palestine Regional Medical Center, but have maintained professional ties with Trinity Clinic / Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler.

Our new, nearly 40,000 square foot medical complex houses state of the art ancillary services, convenient to you, that assist in our diagnostic and treatment endeavours.  Laboratory services available to us are nearly endless.  Much of this is done within the clinic and allows for same day or next day results.  Whether it's a simple blood count or urinalysis to more complicated allergy testing, drug testing, testing for fluid in your lungs, clots in your legs, or plaques in your arteries - it can be done right here on sight.  Our Radiology department offers digital X-rays, so that any physician, anywhere in the world (with a computer), can offer an opinion on your study.  Our rapid sequence CAT scanner can do a CT scan of your chest in four seconds!  We can do coronary artery scans to look for blockages - without a catheterization.  CT angiograms of the head, chest (lungs or heart), abdomen, and extremities are just a hallway away from your doctor's office.  An 'open bore' MRI virtually eliminates the claustrophobia associated with many MRI's.  It's high definition images are suitable for any purpose.  Our nuclear medicine department stays busy doing nuclear cardiac stress tests; but also does nuclear thyroid, lung, gastric emptying, bone, kidney, and biliary scanning.  With an Ultrasound department, we're able to do in-house echocardiography, corotid scans, abdomenal & pelvic sonograms (gall bladder, kidney, liver masses or stones; aortic aneurisms) as well as evaluating for life-threatening DVT's.  Digital mammography gives superior imaging, allowing for possible earlier detection of breast masses, all with less discomfort.  Electrophysiology with EKG's, 24h holter monitors, event monitors, 24h ambulatory BP recording, Bio-Z's, EEG's, PFT's with DLCO, EMG / NCV studies, evoked potentials, claudication testing, . . . gosh, the list just goes on and on.