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 Darrell Carter, M.D., talks with students and residents about managing trauma patients with hard-to-secure airways in a rural practice. |
About 3,000 people live in the tiny town of Granite Falls, Minn. Just about all of them have visited the office of Darrell Carter, M.D., at one time or another. And in the surrounding area, another 18,000 patients call Carter's practice "home."
"I set out to help one patient at a time, to use my God-given talent to make lives a little longer and a little happier," said Carter, a family physician at the Affiliated Community Medical Centers P.A. in Granite Falls and the AAFP 2003 Family Physician of the Year. Carter spoke Aug. 7 to students and residents attending the National Conference of Family Practice Residents and Medical Students in Kansas City, Mo.
Long gone is the signature beard "Dr. Darrell" -- as he is known in the community -- sported in the early days of his practice more than 30 years ago. He spoke almost matter-of-factly as he showed conference attendees slides of his interactions with patients and shared stories of his career.
Earlier that day, Carter talked about his experiences working with critically ill or injured patients in remote settings. His free-ranging chat covered critical care algorithms, managing patients with hard-to-secure airways and rapid sequence intubation.
Carter is known throughout Minnesota as the founder of the Comprehensive Advanced Life Support program, or CALS. It trains rural providers to manage crisis health situations with limited resources. Since its inception in 1996, more than 1,000 medical professionals have been trained in CALS.
Carter also serves as volunteer medical director for Project Turnabout, a nonprofit chemical dependency-compulsive gambling program, and for the Granite Falls ambulance service. In 2001, Carter was named the Minnesota Rural Partners' Rural Health Hero for his innovative work, leadership skills and efforts to establish CALS programs throughout the state. He was also chosen Family Physician of the Year by the Minnesota AFP that year.
Carter said he has enjoyed the time he has spent serving patients in the Minnesota hinterlands. The opportunity to know them as friends and neighbors and to share in their life journeys is part of what makes rural family practice special, he said.
"Where else but in family medicine could we have so many opportunities to stretch the limits of our talents in service to others?" asked Carter. He said he's turned down larger teaching opportunities to remain in rural practice but has no regrets: "It's made it possible for me to grow."
To reach writer J. Michael Brodie, e-mail mbrodie@aafp.org.
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Copyright © 2003 by
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