(June 3, 2008) – A couple of small town doctors decided many years ago that the health care needs of Central Texans shouldn’t take a back seat to anywhere else in the country and almost from the birth of Scott and White, medical professionals there have broken new ground routinely.

Scott and White and several of it’s ground breaking efforts were the subject of The Buzz on Tuesday morning as Out Town Temple week continued

News 10’s Emily Matthews visited with W. Roy Smythe, MD, Chairman of the Dept. of Surgery, Cardiologist John Erwin, MD, Robert Buchanan, MD and Alexzander Asea, chief of investigative medicine.

Each guest brought special skills to the visit.

Smythe has long ties to the hospital. He was born in Temple and graduated medical school there in 1989.

He said Scott and White had a tradition of firsts throughout its 112-year history.

One story he told was about the development of an electric knife – the outgrowth of one doctor’s experimentation with a child’s wood burning set.

He also pointed out that the Temple system is the only level one trauma center between Dallas and Austin and it provides excellent trauma care to patients from throughout Central Texas

As well, Smythe said, both heart and lung transplant units are coming soon.

Erwin said the hospital’s four heart catheterization labs are unequalled in the region.

Buchanan, both a neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist, has built a first class neurosurgery department in a short period of time. Buchanan is the only doctor in the United States who is both a neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist.

Asea is the head of investigative medicine and as such he is on the front line of the search for new cures for myriad diseases and conditions.

He said his department currently is working on a list of issues that hopefully will bring relief to thousands.