Robert S. Berry, M.D. - Biographical Sketch

Dr. Berry graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1981. While there, he was a member of the North Carolina Fellows Program (a leadership development program), and of the golf team during his freshman year. He also earned his private pilot?s license during college. Upon graduating, he was accepted to Harvard Business School on a deferred admission. He subsequently worked for an environmental engineering consulting firm during which time he declined the MBA and decided instead to pursue a medical degree at the University of North Carolina.

While at UNC, Dr. Berry took a year between his third and fourth years to pursue a Diploma in Christian Studies at Regent College, a seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia. While there, he won the Best Essay of the Year Award for a paper concerning the doctrine of creation (click to see Creation paper). The remainder of that year he spent in Haiti doing medical missions.

After medical school, Dr. Berry completed a residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at the University of Alabama Hospitals in Birmingham. While there, he invented and sold approximately a half-million Intern's Organizer patient cards via mail order to assist medical students and house officers with their daily organization. He became a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine, scoring at the 99th percentile on the "core component" of the board exam.

Wishing to become more skillful in acute primary care, he practiced emergency medicine at two high volume ER's in Alabama - one with 55 beds and 100,000 patients per year, the busiest in the state.

While in Alabama, he lived for five years in a blue-collar suburb of Birmingham and was president of Jubilee Ministries, a church-based charity that helped people in his community make the transition from welfare to work. Through his church there he met and married his wife, Blair.

At the invitation of a medical school friend, in 1996 he moved his family to Greeneville to practice Internal Medicine with Takoma Medical Group, but later decided to resume practicing emergency medicine at Takoma Adventist Hospital. Frustrated with bureaucratic medicine and the inadequate medical care the uninsured of his community were receiving, he started PATMOS EmergiClinic in January 2001.

He has since started a non-profit 501c3 organization called Health & Care for the Uninsured (HCU) and has become an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. He recently achieved Board Certification in Emergency Medicine and Diplomate status with the American Academy of Pain Management. He maintains current certification in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Advanced Trauma Life Support, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support.

Dr. Berry is married to Blair, and they have two daughters - Margaret Ruth, 7 and Bekah, 6. Besides playing with them, he likes to hike, read, play golf, pursue sustainable living strategies, and study issues involving freedom, religion, and emergency preparedness. He is a strong proponent of patient-managed care and is a leader within the new and growing movement of consumer-driven healthcare.