Physician honored with health award

LITTLE ROCK — Dr. Gene Shelby, a former state representative and Garland County coroner, was recently recognized for his achievements in public health with the Arkansas Public Health Association’s David E. Bourne Public Health Award, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

The award was established in 2011 to recognize public health policy achievement in the life and works of a distinguished public health advocate, the Department of Health said in a news release.

Shelby, a physician at MedExpress Urgent Care, has practiced emergency medicine in Hot Springs for over 30 years. He served three terms as Garland County coroner before being elected to the Arkansas Legislature in 2006. As a legislator, he served on the Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee, the release said.

“He sponsored or co-sponsored numerous bills to advance health in Arkansas, including Act 393 of 2009, which created the statewide trauma system, and Act 180 of 2009, which increased the tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products to provide funding for the trauma system. As a physician, he has a long history of caring for marginalized populations, including HIV patients and patients with an opioid addiction,” the release said.

Shelby currently serves as Garland County’s county health officer. County health officers are nominated by the county judge and appointed by the State Board of Health. “A county health officer serves in each of Arkansas’s 75 counties as a key public health representative in the local community, participating in the development and review of local emergency plans and serving as a local spokesperson to the media, general public, and medical community in the event of a public health emergency,” it said.

Shelby is also a member of the Arkansas Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Advisory Committee; a past president of the Arkansas chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians; and is a past president and chairman of the board of trustees for the Arkansas Medical Society.

The Arkansas Public Health Association is an affiliate of the American Public Health Association Inc., and the Southern Health Association. The membership of the Arkansas Public Health Association is made up of individuals from public health disciplines, as well as persons interested in the advancement of public health, the release said.