TAFP names Arnold top family physician

Dr. Kelly Arnold, a family medicine physician with Erlanger Primary Care’s UT Family Practice office, has been named the 2020 Family Physician of the Year by the Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians. The annual award is given to a family medicine physician who has made an outstanding contribution in the field, to the advancement of health, and advancement of medical education.

Arnold was nominated for her work founding and running the Clinica Medicos, a medical clinic modeled after global mission hospitals making quality healthcare accessible to Chattanooga’s underserved Latin community. The clinic provides a full spectrum of primary health care aiding in preventing usage of emergency rooms for primary care.

Arnold also developed an Advanced Obstetrics and Urban Mission Family Medicine fellowship program that allows family physicians to pursue additional training that makes them invaluable resources to marginalized populations in cities and rural areas across the globe.

“Dr. Arnold is a champion of identifying and solving problems related to health disparities in our community, while maintaining a clear focus on safe, efficient, equitable, patient-centered care simultaneously demonstrating that it is possible for facilities to be financially solvent and care for the underserved,” said Dr. James Haynes, chairman of Family Medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga.