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Home News UT Graduate School of Medicine Physician Recognized for 50 Years of Service

UT Graduate School of Medicine Physician Recognized for 50 Years of Service

Published: Friday, May 8, 2009

When he graduated from medical school in 1959, a gallon of gas cost 25 cents. Alaska and Hawaii had just become U.S. states, and NASA introduced America’s first astronauts. On the medical front, pacemakers, open-heart surgery and the polio vaccine were new and smoking was found to shorten lifespan. Medicare and Medicaid did not exist.

A half-century and innumerable medical advancements later, one thing remains constant: The devotion to medicine held by Alfred D. Beasley, MD, FACP, Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, Knoxville.

In March 2009, Dr. Beasley was recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA) for his 50-year anniversary of graduation from medical school. In a statement, Michael D. Maves, MD, MBA, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the AMA said, “Dr. Beasley has seen many changes in medicine in the last 50 years. [The AMA] sincerely thanks him for his commitment to this great profession.”

Dr. Beasley graduated from the UT College of Medicine, Memphis, and completed his residency and fellowship training at UT Memorial Research Center and Hospital (the predecessor to today’s University of Tennessee Medical Center) and Emory University.

In reflecting on changes over the past 50 years, Dr. Beasley remembers, “When I arrived [at UT hospital] in 1959, CPR was performed as an open-chest procedure. We were encouraged to carry pocket knives, so we could quickly cut open the chest, reach in between the ribs, and start squeezing the heart of someone who had a sudden cardiac arrest. Soon, closed-chest massage became recognized as the preferred method for prompt treatment of cardiac arrest.”

In fact, Dr. Beasley was the first physician in Knoxville to achieve a successful resuscitation with the new procedure.

He continued to provide both expert clinical care for patients and mentoring to resident physicians and fellows. Dr. Beasley served as chairman of the Department of Medicine at University of Tennessee Medical Center for 30 years and was awarded Professor Emeritus in 1997. He has served as director of Graduate Medical and Dental Education at the UT Graduate School of Medicine since 1968.

“I have treasured the association with the physicians who have continued to dedicate their time, energy and skills to make UT Graduate School of Medicine and University of Tennessee Medical Center the asset to the region they are today,” he said.

The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville is part of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the statewide academic health system. The school is home to more than 200 teaching physicians and researchers; more than 190 medical and dental resident physicians in 11 residency and 12 fellowship programs; and more than 180 volunteer faculty physicians and dentists. The school, together with clinical partner University Health System Inc., form the University of Tennessee Medical Center, the only academic medical center in the area.

 

For more information about the UT Graduate School of Medicine, visit http://gsm.utmck.edu.