Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings October 2017 - 480

Allen continues as chief of cardiology at Grady Memorial
Hospital (Figure 7). He recently gave up his hobby of motorcycle
riding due to concerns that too many automobile drivers were
inattentive, using their various devices while driving. Shelly
continues with her interest in art but is busy running the nonproﬁt organization.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Special thanks to Fred Boyer and his ﬁne staﬀ for preparing
the manuscript and to Stacie Waddell for doing the ﬁgures.
1.

Berger M. This Is a Soul: The Mission of Rick Hodes. New York: William
Morrow, 2010.

Figure 7. Allen, chief of cardiology at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Book Review

House Call: A Doctor's Time in
Medicine and Government by
J. Roy Rowland, MD, and Selby
McCash
Herndon, VA: Mascot Books, 2017.
320 pp., $19.95, hardback.
Reviewed by Thomas Gore, MD

ost of us physicians
do good work on a
daily basis. With a
busy schedule every
day that we are working-and
we work a lot-most of us ﬁnd
it hard to get involved in community activities. We rarely get
involved heavily in political campaigns. Most of us have not
gone to the state house or to Congress to lobby our representatives on behalf of medicine. Yet we know of some physicians
who are so inclined.
J. Roy Rowland, MD, is one such person. After many
years of private practice in Dublin, Georgia, he got involved
deeply in organized medicine. He got his feet wet with an
organization called CONTROL, advocating a limit to government interference with medical care. He was a stalwart in
the Medical Association of Georgia. He served in the Georgia
Legislature for 6 years before retiring from practice and taking

480

the incredible risk of running for Congress against an incumbent. He won and was reelected ﬁve times. He had a distinguished career for 12 years in the US House of Representatives
from 1983 to 1995. In his autobiography, he outlines this
exciting story of his life's work in medicine and government
service. This encompassed the time of Ronald Reagan's presidency, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the banning of Quaaludes,
the Iran/Contra aﬀair, and many other smaller issues. As one
of the few physicians in Congress at the time, he became a
respected leader when health care reform was front and center
with the Clinton presidency.
This book is a captivating story of the times, the struggles,
and the ultimate stalemate on health care reform. Just how close
he came to forging a more moderate alternative to the Clinton
plan becomes apparent to the reader. Spiced with humor and
wise perspective, this book is a great guide for physicians. How
to become more involved (the good, the bad, and the ugly)
becomes clear through his life story. It is amazing how he kept
his head on straight and maintained humility and a gentle
persistence to act for the common good. I could not put the
book down. I encourage physicians to read this newly published
300-pager. It tells a story for all time to remember about a great
man who makes us proud to say we are his fellow physicians.
We can learn much from his example.
The reviewer, Thomas B. Gore, MD, is a cardiologist in Lagrange, Georgia.

Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings

Volume 30, Number 4

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings October 2017