North Carolina Family Physician Receives Public Health Award at American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Meeting in Chicago

CHICAGO – L. Allen Dobson, Jr., M.D., FAAFP, a family physician from Mount Pleasant, N.C., was awarded the 2007 Public Health Award by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) at its annual meeting in Chicago. The AAFP’s Public Health Award recognizes individuals who have made or are making extraordinary contributions to the health of the American public. The award was one of 10 presented for exceptional achievement in the field of family medicine at the AAFP’s Scientific Assembly, one of the largest gatherings of primary care providers in the country.

Dobson has committed his life to serving the indigent and medically underserved in North Carolina. In 1994, he co-founded the North Carolina Physicians Advisory Group. Dobson was the first board chair of the group and served in that capacity for several years. Under his leadership, the group of volunteer physicians from all medical specialties identified issues and made suggestions that resulted in legislation that required every medical policy in Medicaid be sent through the Physicians Advisory Group for review and recommendations prior to any changes.

During this time, Dobson was also a founder of the Community Care of North Carolina, a provider-led health care network that includes clinics, doctors’ offices, hospitals, local case managers and care coordinators. Community Care, now a state-wide program, has improved access and quality while saving millions of dollars for North Carolina. Medicaid by ensuring patients have a primary care doctor and a medical home where chronic diseases, such as asthma and diabetes, are monitored and treated. The aim of the program has been to avoid or manage illnesses before they escalate into problems that require emergency room treatment or hospital stays. The program is slated to expand coverage to the elderly, blind and disabled populations.

Dobson continues to be actively involved in the Physicians Advisory Group and Community Care of N.C., and, from 2005 until recently, he took on an even larger task serving as Assistant Secretary for Health Policy and Medical Assistance for State of North Carolina Department of Health of Human Services.

Dobson’s ability to create a win-win environment for all has resulted in invitations from states nationwide to meet with legislators to advise them how to implement similar systems in their own state. Just recently, The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University presented North Carolina the prestigious Annie E. Casey Innovations in Government award for the Community Care program.

Dobson has been an inspiration to countless medical students, residents, practicing physicians and the community. He established the Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency Program, making it one of the first decentralized community-based residency programs in the nation. He also served as an officer and a board member of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors.

Dobson currently is a clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and serves as chief executive officer of Cabarrus Family Medicine, which operates seven health care sites in Cabarrus and Stanly counties. The practice merged with Carolinas HealthCare System earlier this month, where he will also serve as corporate vice president for clinical practice development.

In addition to receiving the AAFP’s Public Health Award, Dobson has been recognized for his service with many other awards, including 1992 North Carolina Family Physician of the Year, 1999 Sports Medicine Person of the Year, and the 2004 North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians Lifetime Achievement Award. He also is a past recipient of North Carolina’s highest community service award, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

Dobson received his medical degree from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., and undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.