LUCY SCHULTZE

Dr. Richard J. Galloway began his career in the classroom, but today he’s channeling those teaching skills in a host of other directions.

As the senior endocrinologist at Hattiesburg Clinic, his mission is to educate diabetic patients on how to manage their own disease. As medical director of Forrest General Hospital’s preventive care program, the LiveWell Center, he’s equipping patients to take control of their own health goals. And as a frequent pharmaceutical speaker, he’s helping fellow doctors across the Southeast stay abreast of the latest treatment options for high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes.

“My love of teaching has never changed,” said Galloway, who taught high school for several years and initially envisioned a career as a university professor. But a series of events changed the course of his ambition, leading him from medical research to medical school.

Galloway studied biochemistry as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, providing a natural transition into the specialty of endocrinology. He received his medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, Calif., and went on to serve an internship and residency at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colo. He then completed a fellowship in endocrinology at the Water Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He is board-certified in endocrinology and internal medicine.

When his career at Walter Reed led him to the position of research-department chief, he knew it was time to switch gears and find a way to return to more-direct patient care. He didn’t expect, though, to realize that goal in a Mississippi town he’d barely heard of — especially not over the handful of offers he’d already received.

“I didn’t even know where Hattiesburg was,” he said. “They called me out of the blue and said, ‘We want you to come down here and look at our facility.’”

Doubtful, Galloway told the Forrest General representatives he was looking for a smaller town that had good people and modern medical facilities.

“Well,” they insisted, “that sounds like Hattiesburg.”

Born into a military family, Galloway graduated high school in Hawaii and has lived all over the country, never staying in one place for more than a few years at a time. He’s now been in Hattiesburg for 12 years.

A part of what’s made for such a good long-term fit has been the hospital’s support in one of Galloway’s chief interests — preventive medicine. Today, Forrest General’s LiveWell Center is housed in the Cloverleaf Medical Plaza, about a mile from the main location of Hattiesburg Clinic. Its wide range of services includes cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, smoking cessation programs and an American Diabetes Association-approved diabetic education program. It also includes weight-management programs that offer supervised exercise, water aerobics and even chair aerobics.

“I’m really excited about preventive medicine, and frustrated that many insurance companies — and the government to some degree as well — always talk about how important it is but never want to pay for it,” Galloway said.

“I’m thankful to Forrest General because they’ve had the vision to support this center despite the fact it’s lost money. You can see how it changes people’s lives.”

The Cloverleaf Medical Plaza also houses the Endocrinology Department. Galloway spends most of his working hours at the clinic in outpatient practice, sharing hospital duties with partners Drs. Daniel T. McCall IV and J. Gregory Powell. The trio is seeking to add another endocrinologist soon.

“The demand for services is simply greater than we can provide,” Galloway said.

In addition to diabetes patients, the practice sees those with thyroid problems and osteoporosis, and deals with cardiovascular issues and cardiovascular risk reduction.

For Galloway, working with younger partners who are both about four years out of training is a constant reminder of how much things have changed since he started his own medical career.

“Diabetes care was pretty much in the dark ages when I trained,” he said. “There were only a couple of types of insulin, but now they even have a kind you can inhale.

“When I trained, the insulin pumps were either not available or were so large you needed a backpack to wear them around. Now they’re the size of pagers.”

Among other advances, the standardization of national guidelines which serve as target numbers for low blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar has allowed for better measures of progress with each patient.

For all the progress, though, those patients are still only human.

“One of the hardest things about diabetes is that it’s a teamwork approach,” Galloway said. “The person has to be willing to make some changes, to take their meds carefully and change their diet. This is not the kind of disease where you can just take a pill and it will be fine.”

To communicate that message to his patients, Galloway stresses the analogy of a football game. If they, the players, don’t show up at the game, they’ll lose no matter how good he may be as their coach.

“In diabetes care today, we really do have the tools we need,” he said. “The hardest thing at this point is to get the person who has this disease to care as much as we do.”

Although the continued rise of diabetes around the country is frustrating — especially with Mississippi in the lead — Galloway says his strategy is to focus on the positive.

“I celebrate every person I can help to do better,” he said. “I tell my patients, I don’t like to lose, so we need to work together.”
Outside of work, Galloway enjoys woodworking, a hobby he inherited from his father’s skill of fixing and building. He and his wife, Jeannie, have two grown children, Nick and Erin.



November 2007