Lanetta Anderson, MD, recently installed as president of the Bluff City Medical Society, suggests that her early interest in medicine may have been sparked by her grandmother, a lay midwife who delivered the first eight of Anderson’s 16 siblings.
With a schoolteacher mom as arbiter, such a large family encouraged competitiveness — “in a positive way,” she stressed.
Additional incentive to enter the field of medicine came from her two brothers who were physicians. As a high school student, she worked in the North Memphis medical office of one of her brothers.
Anderson attended Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, graduating in the top 20 percent of her class at a time when women were a 40 percent minority and African-American women were in a minority that was significantly less than that. Her internship and residency were completed at Northwestern University in Chicago, where despite being the only female in her eight-resident group, she was voted chief resident.
“I didn’t really have a plan for OB/GYN, but I did my rotations and loved them all – but in OB, the light went on,” she said.
Anderson attended Central and Northside High in Memphis, graduating in 1984, and is active today in Northside’s alumni association, where she recently helped her class raise nearly $4,000 for the school.
She left a position with Emory University in Atlanta to return to Memphis, where she found the medical community extremely welcoming to a newcomer with new ideas.
“It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” she said.
Recently, she shared her views with Memphis Medical News:
On women’s health needs:
“The female patient is generally the center of healthcare not only for herself but for the family — children, spouse, boyfriend, co-workers — so the better served that female patient population is, the more the rest of the community will benefit.
“What’s really killing women is heart disease . . . and spousal abuse. When patients come into our office with their significant other, we always request a five-minute interview without the spouse, to share private information and make certain that this patient is not vulnerable to domestic abuse.”
Her practice at the Women’s Physician Group, which recently merged with Memphis Obstetrics and Gynecological Association, PC (MOGA), promotes natural labor and low intervention.
“I’m not necessarily critical of the induction planning,” she said. “I just think it’s overused; and with overuse, you’re going to have consequences. Not everyone is going to respond to the medication — their bodies are not ready — so you have a higher C-section rate. The most important thing we can do to change the climate of Cesarean section in Memphis is to minimize our induction. Sometimes being a good physician doesn’t always mean doing something to a patient.”
On underserved segments of society:
“The average inner-city 13-year-old, 18-year-old or 25-year-old may not have health insurance or the guidance to get adequate care — and may be very vulnerable to peer sexuality starting to dominate their life, leading to unplanned pregnancy or STD. As a 30-year-old, they’re dealing with the consequences of behaviors that might have been impacted with guidance and care and counseling and appropriate birth control.”
Anderson takes pride in Memphis’ LARC (Long-Acting Reversible Contraception) program, available through the A Step Ahead Foundation, courtesy of a privately funded grant that purchases IUDs or arm-implantable Nexplanon® capsules that provide protection from pregnancy for three years.
“We’re already seeing an impact,” she said.
On Bluff City Medical Society (BCMS):
“In this era, it’s not really a black organization any longer, with black issues. I think it’s really a group that has broader issues that we’re addressing in a mainstream way. The value of Bluff City is that we can target the African-American community in some unique issues and serve as a resource to the community.”
She points to positive results of the society’s mentorship program for UT medical students, and its ability to address some of the stressors that African-American physicians may feel either in individual or in smaller group practices.
Among their efforts is the fourth annual Physician Business Symposium, scheduled for July 11 at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn. It shifts the emphasis from patient care and focuses on ways to structure practices in terms of their financial makeup.
“Affiliating with hospitals is the trend for medicine, but you’ll find many single physician practices in our organization,” Anderson said.
Bluff City Medical Society’s primary focus is on a healthy eating and living initiative that involves 10 predominantly African-American Memphis city churches.
“We’re trying to address the epidemic of obesity within our community, asking individuals to make a commitment for a minimum of one year," she said. "Baptist does bloodwork, which screens for diabetes and cholesterol and anemia, and we are then on a program of monthly meetings and planned exercises.
“We’re trying to empower each church to be more than just a church in terms of ministry by also creating opportunities for the membership to ‘know better, and do better.’ The churches are working out. Several have been tested twice (the testing is quarterly), so hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have some data for an evidence-based approach next year of how to most effectively expand this program.”
Anderson regards her greatest accomplishment as being in a practice that she loves, and considers her most crucial issue to be time management. Adding the demanding job of presiding over BCMS to the daily workload of her practice is a challenge, she said. “I’ve never viewed myself as a leader, but I think I have ideas and I’m a fair person; and I think that people see that I like to empower other people — I’m more of a listener who comes up with creative solutions.”
She has a 22-year-old stepson majoring in physical therapy at Coastal Carolina University. Her leisure interests focus on mission trips to Africa (she’s made six) and travel to places to connect with different people, communities and foods.
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.astepaheadfoundation.org/