doctor at a community event with Big Red from the Arizona Cardinals

National Doctors' Day

Marian Frank
Marian Frank
doctor at a community event with Big Red from the Arizona Cardinals
For National Doctors' Day, the College is Highlighting Faculty Who are Doing Incredible Things for the Phoenix Community and Beyond

March 30 is National Doctors’ Day, which honors the contributions of physicians who work to save lives every day. The day was first celebrated in the 1930s in Georgia and was federally commemorated by Congress and President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

We would like to thank all the doctors at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix — our faculty, alumni, students, mentors and colleagues — who have impacted medicine and research, and continually devote their careers to serving others.

We would love for you to share your stories, memories and videos by tagging @uazmedphx on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) and using #HonorAPhysician.

Finding Better Treatments for Children with Cancer

Cynthia Wetmore, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Phoenix Children's Hospital

Cynthia Wetmore, MD, PhD
Cynthia Wetmore, MD, PhD
Cynthia Wetmore, MD, PhD, is a pediatric oncologist who specializes in providing care for children with brain tumors. Dr. Wetmore is actively involved in bringing new targeted agents to Phase I/II clinical trials for the treatment of children with cancer. She brings two decades of basic science research experience to the design of molecularly-based therapeutic protocols.

“I love taking care of patients and bringing cutting-edge scientific advances to the clinic to benefit patient care,” Dr. Wetmore said.

Dr. Wetmore is the director of the Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders and the Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplantation at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She was endorsed by the AP&T Committee and will be joining the College of Medicine – Phoenix as a professor in the Department of Child Health.

In pediatric oncology, they know that many of the survivors have significant toxicities from the chemo- and radiation therapy that they use to treat these tumors. Dr. Wetmore said that by bringing more targeted therapeutic agents to clinical practice, they may be able to more precisely target the mutations of the tumors and limit the “collateral damage” to normal cells in the child’s developing body.

“I am passionate about research and aim to make Phoenix Children’s Hospital a destination medical center for the treatment of children and adolescents with cancer and blood disorders,” Dr. Wetmore said.

Improving Vision for Ebola Survivors in Liberia

Robin D. Ross, MD, MPH
Clinical Assistant Professor, Departments of Bioethics and Medical Humanism and Ophthalmology, and Director of Global Health Outreach

Robin D. Ross, MD, MPH
Robin D. Ross, MD, MPH
Robin D. Ross, MD, MPH, is a retinal specialist with a global health background. Five billion people in the world lack access to safe surgical care, and with the Ebola epidemic in late 2014, it struck her as a physician to hear that there were no surgical ophthalmologists in the country of Liberia.

“About 20 percent of Ebola survivors had ocular complications while grieving the loss of their friends and family,” she said. “There is a Haitian saying in global health that states ‘beyond mountains there are mountains,’ ” so in 2015, she left the University of Michigan for Liberia.

Fast forward to the present, and she is on her 15th trip to Liberia, where she works with an NIH team following 2,500 Ebola survivors and their close contacts in the PREVAIL (Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia) 3 Eye Sub-Studies.

Last September, the group performed the first cataract surgery trial with nine international organizations from four countries. For Dr. Ross, the smiles, hugs and songs of gratitude are indelible memories. Working toward building ophthalmology capacity is making a dent in access to surgical care.

“Teaching in the Global Health department is an opportunity to give back. I would not be in global health if it weren’t for generous scholarships, donors and alumni support that helped me see that ‘vision is much more than eyesight,’ ” she said.

Bringing Compassionate Care to Prisoners

Jonathan Cartsonis, MD
Director of the Rural Health Professions Program

Jonathan Cartsonis, MD
Jonathan Cartsonis, MD

Jonathan Cartsonis, MD, became interested in community health while attending medical school at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. He credits his mentors there for nurturing that interest through programs such as CUP – Commitment to Underserved People.

Through CUP, he helped families that had difficulty navigating the health care system because of language and cultural barriers. “Through experiences like that, I realized that I liked working with populations that are underserved and benefit from extra time and explanations,” he said.

His commitment to aid those in critical need led him to a career in family and community medicine, one that has branched across a spectrum of underserved communities in Arizona. He’s worked as a family physician in his hometown of Litchfield Park, spent time with Health Care for the Homeless and eventually joined the UA to set up the Rural Health Professions Program in Phoenix.

Around the period that he joined UA, he also began working in correctional health. “At the time, the system could not get accreditation by the national body that certifies that a correctional health system was meeting minimal standards,” he said.

He found the population in the jail similar to populations he’d worked with in other settings, especially the homeless. Inmates experienced high rates of addiction, mental health issues and chronic disease.

Though things were tough in the beginning, he and his colleagues were able to make positive strides. They implemented a methadone maintenance program to help inmates dealing with heroin addiction. It allowed them to start treatment of a prisoner while they were still in jail — about a month prior to their release — and “we ensure there is a follow up in a community methadone clinic.” The hope, “is the patients stay on methadone and stay off the streets. We don’t want to see them back in jail, and we want to see them stay healthy,” he said.

The outcomes of this program are now being studied. A current medical student at the college is using it as the focus of their four-year Scholarly Project.

Dr. Cartsonis also works with inmates experiencing chronic pain. “We have inmates who led on average very dangerous and crazy lives,” he said. The consequences of that are manifested in the pain they are now experiencing. This, of course, can lead to dependency on opioids. To combat that, Dr. Cartsonis has utilized his acupuncture skills to alleviate that pain in a more organic and healthy way.

It’s a treatment option not widely offered, and though not all patients respond, they have seen a significant improvement in the symptoms of many who’ve tried it.

Giving Back in Many Ways

William Dolan, MD
Career and Professional Advisor, Department of Student Affairs, and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

William Dolan, MD
William Dolan, MD
“I feel so grateful to have been blessed with family, faith and country, as well as the skills to make a difference,” William Dolan, MD, said. “The biggest accomplishment is making a positive difference with the healing touch.”

Dr. Dolan’s entire career has centered around the idea of giving back. After graduating from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completing his surgical residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Milwaukee, he joined the not-for-profit Phoenix-based Esperanca. He worked as its program director for 15 years. During this time, he spent six of those years in the Amazon of Brazil, where he provided care to poor communities facing a multitude of health disparities.

“It’s a privilege to do this type of work,” Dr. Dolan said. “Sometimes you have to pay to do it and not get paid. It is a tremendous honor to come into these people’s lives and to care for them.”

After working with Esperanca, he continued his career at the Phoenix VA Health Care System starting in 1989. He served as chief of Surgery for 13 years and retired from full-time work in 2011.  He joined the UA College of Medicine volunteer faculty in 1994. He now works one day a week in Student Affairs as a medical student advisor, as well as other areas of volunteer support. In 2015 he retired from the U.S. Navy, which included a tour in Afghanistan in 2013.

Recently, Dr. and Mrs. Dolan pledged a donation of $25,000 to the College of Medicine – Phoenix in support of student scholarships.

“It’s an important way to give back and say ‘Thank you,’ ” he said. “It supports students who are coming down the pike and gives hope to the next generations of physicians we so desperately need.”

About the College

Founded in 2007, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix inspires and trains exemplary physicians, scientists and leaders to optimize health and health care in Arizona and beyond. By cultivating collaborative research locally and globally, the college accelerates discovery in a number of critical areas — including cancer, stroke, traumatic brain injury and cardiovascular disease. Championed as a student-centric campus, the college has graduated more than 800 physicians, all of whom received exceptional training from nine clinical partners and more than 2,700 diverse faculty members. As the anchor to the Phoenix Bioscience Core, which is projected to have an economic impact of $3.1 billion by 2025, the college prides itself on engaging with the community, fostering education, inclusion, access and advocacy.