A 1999 graduate of McDonald County High School is now serving as the president of the Oklahoma Society of Anesthesiologists.
Matt Brown, who grew up in Southwest City, hopes to utilize his career experiences to build and actively engage the organization's base of members.
Brown, son of Nancy Brown, practices at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa.
His service with the organization began in 2015 when he was appointed as secretary/treasurer for 2015, then as vice president for the next year.
As president, Brown hopes to encourage OSA members to actively participate, and bring the OSA annual meeting to Tulsa.
Engaging members to work together is key, he said. As an organization, members can tackle reimbursement models, insurance contracts or CRNA scope of practice issues.
Brown has made the medical field his life's work, becoming interested in a medical career late in high school.
He originally planned to pursue orthopedic surgery because he found surgery appealing.
"I didn't consider anesthesiology as a career until my third year in medical school, as we get such a limited exposure to this specialty in medical school."
However, Brown liked the variety of opportunities provided by a career in anesthesia.
"I decided on anesthesia because I am able to participate in a wide variety of surgical procedures, while still being able to perform minor procedures," he wrote in an email.
"Anesthesiology is a mix of surgery, pain management and critical-care medicine all rolled into one. I am able to make use of a wide variety of the knowledge and experience I've obtained over the years of training and practice," he said.
Mom, Nancy Brown, said Matt always showed aptitude and interest in biology and math.
After high school graduation, he sought the best option for college.
"He took the incentive to work hard on finding scholarships from various entities and eventually decided that Drury would be a good fit for him," she said.
"He got in with a good group of guys and into a great fraternity and I think all that helped him decide to pursue medicine," she said. "In fact, there are five or six of his college 'group' who are doctors."
After graduating from Drury University in Springfield, Brown attended medical school at Kansas City University School of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his anesthesiology residency at Oklahoma State University.
His residency program director, Steve Bovasso, DO, at OSU Medical Center in Tulsa, was important to his success.
"He ensured that we had a non-malignant teaching environment, which helped us focus on learning. That helped to fuel my passion for the field of anesthesiology," he said.
Brown's year of service for OSA will be complete in December.
General News on 07/27/2017