PINE BLUFF - A reception honoring Dr. Mark Attwood of Rison will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12, in the Henslee Conference Center at at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff.
Dr. Sam Taggart, author of Country Doctors of Arkansas, will be in attendance at the reception. Dr. Attwood is one of the doctors featured in the book.
Country doctors hold a special place in our lives. Most of these men and women are originally from small towns and make the conscious decision to return. Wisdom is another of those traits that sets them apart. Each little town thinks of their doctor as the best diagnostician ever. A calm demeanor with a quiet voice, soft touch and a warm smile has always been considered an important attribute. Being calm and certain when everyone else is in turmoil helps to engender confidence.
Country Doctors of Arkansas began as a series of interviews, recorded during 2016-2017, looking at the lives and practices of the country doctors of Arkansas over the last 70 years. This series was produced by the Arkansas Physician’s Oral History Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.
One of the country doctors interviewed for this project was Dr. Harvie Marks Attwood, a fifth generation Rison native. Dr. Attwood’s great, great grandfather moved to Rison in 1865 and the family still has property that was deeded in 1866.
Mark initially graduated from the University of Arkansas College of Pharmacy. He went back to UAMS at the age of 26 to begin medical school.
Dr. George Ackerman, one of the pillars of academic medicine at UAMS and also a native of Rison, strongly encouraged Mark in his medical career. After medical school, Mark applied to the Area Health Education Family Medicine Residency in Pine Bluff with a glowing letter of endorsement from Dr. Ackerman.
Dr. Attwood excelled in his residency and when he was in his final year, Dr, Don. Miller, head of the residency, approached him with an offer. “I want you to stay here and be on our faculty.” He took Dr. Miller up on his offer and has been a faculty member ever since.
Early on, Dr. Miller and Mark sat down and collaborated about building a clinic in Rison and using it as a rural practice site for the residency. Mark would operate the clinic and remain as faculty for the residency while residents would rotate through the clinic.
In the next year, the building was constructed and on Oct. 2, 1985, he saw the first patient in the Rison Medical Clinic. When Dr. Miller retired in 1995, Dr. Attwood became the AHEC Director in Pine Bluff.
In 2018, Mainline Health Systems acquired the Rison Family Practice Clinic. As a rural town in Southeast Arkansas, Dr. Attwood wanted to make sure the patients and citizens would have access to a doctor in Cleveland County long after he was gone. He thought this was the best way to insure that would happen.
Today, Dr. Attwood continues his work with UAMS as Associate Professor of Family Medicine, teaching residents and assisting with the development of new, rural Residency Programs.
Mark is proud of their residents and the residency record in placing physicians throughout Arkansas. “I am most proud of the legacy of what the residency has done, not what I have done, but what the residency has done as far as providing good physicians for this state, that has been the most gratifying.”
When Dr. Attwood was asked what he would like for his grandchildren to know about him he answered, “I want them to know that there are lots of ways to measure success and a lot of it is not money; it is in what you leave behind. Hopefully, the residency program has left behind something that is beneficial to the citizens of this state for many years to come.”