The Right Track continued
Gastroenterology also offers an accredited
three-year fellowship program for medical
students who wish to pursue further
training in the specialty.
“We have extended the excellence that
has historically been provided in Temple
down to the Round Rock campus,” says
Benjamin D. Havemann, MD, director of
the Division of Gastroenterology at Scott &
White Healthcare - Round Rock. “As we
grow, we’re bringing in a complete line of
diagnostic and therapeutic tools.”
Mark Richards, MD, director of the
Division of Internal Medicine and chief
of the Section of Gastroenterology at Scott
& White Healthcare College Station, says
patients appreciate the convenience of a
clinic that offers a general gastroenterology
practice. “We can be a local, small,
integrated group and still be part of the
larger Scott & White system,” he says.
Is it just a bad stomach?
To measure the magnitude of digestive
problems in the United States, all you have
to do is stop by a pharmacy and note the
multiple shelves of various antacids and
other medications designed to calm a
savage stomach. Even a visit to the dairy
case of your grocery store will reveal several
brands of probiotic yogurts that promise to
soothe unruly digestion.
When such over-the-counter and outof-the-refrigerator measures fail, sufferers
turn to physicians to fix their digestive tract
disorders. Gastroenterologists at Scott &
White Healthcare say the complaints they
treat most often are abdominal pain and
heartburn. Patients tend to visit their
Patient Matthew Smith and Dr. Benjamin Havemann.
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THE CATALYST Spring 10 | sw.org