Lora L. Brown, MD on Tampa Bay Medical News

Lora L. Brown, MD

By: LYNNE JETER

President, Manatee County Medical Society

BRADENTON—It took a while for Lora L. Brown, MD, to heed the calling of medicine.

Free-spirited at heart, Brown was sidetracked in her youth by “indulging in the collegiate lifestyle,” she said, “too vigorously my first two years of college.”

“My father withdrew my financial support and insisted that I work for a living,” recalled Brown, president of the Manatee County Medical Society, and a staff physician at Coastal Pain Management and Rehabilitation in Bradenton and Bayside Anesthesia Services, LLC, in St. Petersburg. “From that point forward, I was on my own without family financial support. I worked my way through the rest of college and medical school. Many times, I held several jobs at once. In retrospect, that was very important. I understand the value of hard work, the value of money, and the importance of honesty and integrity. I learned how to communicate and appreciate people from all walks of life. These skills have boded me well during my carrier as a physician.”

Paying it Forward

Brown’s activities as leader of the Manatee County Medical Society for 2010 have provided her with a full plate of volunteer work. For example, Brown is working diligently within the organization to develop one of the state’s first HIE (health information exchange) systems.

“When fully integrated, the HIE will allow physicians, hospitals, pharmacists, and healthcare providers to access patients’ medical and demographic information via a secure electronic database,” said Brown. “Ultimately, this will improve healthcare for our patients and save millions of dollars.”

With prescription drug abuse a hot issue in Florida, Brown is working with other pain doctors associated with the Florida Society of Pain Physicians in participation with the BOM/BOOM committee on regulation of pain clinics. “We’re trying to establish standards of care that will reduce the proliferation of ‘pill-mills,’” said Brown, who was recently appointed to the Governors PDMP Oversight Task Force and is collaborating with Sanford Silverman, MD, to create a day-long CME activity on Risk Management Practices for Controlled Substances. Brown hopes the CME events are offered around the state this year.

On a clinical note, Brown is enhancing her skills within the minimally invasive spine field. “There are numerous exciting developments within this arena,” she said, “that will improve our treatment of spine disease.”

Brown is also in the process of establishing the first Pain GPO (group purchasing organization).

“In this era of medicine, with costs rising and reimbursement declining, we’ve got to find innovative ways to save money,” she said. “Group purchasing is an avenue that has proven successful. My specialty simply did not have representation, so we’re filling the niche.”

Outside the healthcare walls, Brown can be seen scooting around downtown St. Petersburg on a Vespa. She’s heavily involved with The American Stage Theater in St Petersburg as a tireless board member and cheerleader.

“I’d like to create a patient email-based database that could be used to educate and mobilize patients to speak with a unified voice during these healthcare debates,” said Brown. “Maybe that will be my legacy as president of the Manatee County Medical Society in 2010.”

Brown didn’t have a truly traditional upbringing. After her parents, Rick and Linda Brown, met as students at the University of Florida in Gainesville and married, they settled temporarily in St. Petersburg, Linda’s hometown, and where Brown and her four-years-younger brother, Rick, were born.

When Brown was nine years old, the family relocated from Ft. Lauderdale, where he dad was a criminal attorney, to the mountains of Western North Carolina (WNC).

“They bought 100 acres outside Asheville and decided to become tobacco farmers,” explained Brown. “The next several years, we lived in the boondocks with our nearest neighbor one mile away. My father was truly a city slicker farmer who entrusted his success to the generosity of a neighboring farmer who took him under his wing.”

When Brown’s parents ran out of money in WNC and sold off enough of the farm, the family migrated to Texas, where they entered the wood-burning stove/fireplace insert niche market. In high school there, Brown was named the smartest athlete for making top grades while playing basketball and other sports.

Circuitous Route

After her father’s financial support for college ceased, Brown began working in the family business … “in the factory, putting together blower motors for the stoves in 100 degree temperatures in the Texas summer.” Brown quickly advanced to retail sales and then regional sales. “I spent a year travelling Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, selling these things out of the back of a van … quite a learning experience,” she said.

Brown knew she needed a career change. With her fantasy of “becoming a rock star and traveling the world first-class” thwarted, she joked, Brown turned her attention to math and science. She graduated cum laude from the University of Texas in 1992, and earned a medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch—Galveston. She completed an internship in general surgery and a residency in anesthesiology at University Hospital in San Antonio before heading to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she completed a fellowship in pain management, serving as chief fellow.

“I never had plans to be a doctor, but I’m glad that I am one,” she said. “I started out with the intention of becoming a plastic surgeon. The three years of general surgery dissuaded me. The persistence of the anesthesia department paid off when I transferred from general surgery to anesthesia after my internship. I knew soon after that, I would pursue pain management as a career. Pain management provides a nice combination of procedures, minor surgery, and long-term patient care.”

From 2002 to 2006, Brown joined St. Anthony’s Hospital and Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. From 2003 to 2005, she also worked with the Bellaire Surgery Center in Bellaire and Pinellas Bayside Surgery Center in St. Petersburg. Concerning the business side of medicine, Brown was rudely awakened when she learned during her first practice experience that “there are those who don’t follow the Golden Rule,” she said, “to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Fortunately, Brown didn’t let the experience sour her outlook when she began branching out professionally.