{"id":9662,"date":"2015-08-20T13:23:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T19:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=9662"},"modified":"2015-08-20T13:24:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T19:24:17","slug":"david-buck-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2015\/08\/david-buck-83\/","title":{"rendered":"Peak Profile: David Buck \u201983"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_BUL-August-p21-PeakProfile-Buck-2015\"<\/a>Working toward a \u201cmore caring\u201d approach, Dr. David Buck \u201983<\/strong> believes it\u2019s possible to save billions of dollars while giving the needy better healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a cruel system that can precipitate and maintain homelessness,\u201d said the family physician and healthcare-reform advocate.<\/p>\n

For more than 25 years, Buck has worked to improve treatment for the impoverished. He\u2019s president of Healthcare for the Homeless-Houston, which he founded in 1999 as a two-room medical clinic and developed into a collaboration of organizations. Last year the group provided care through clinics, outreach initiatives, and support services to 10,000 disadvantaged clients. Homeless people serve on the organization\u2019s governing board \u201cso we don\u2019t lose the voice of the street,\u201d Buck said.<\/p>\n

Awarded the American Academy of Family Physicians\u2019 Public Health Award in 2013 for \u201cextraordinary contributions to the health of the American public,\u201d Buck also heads Houston\u2019s Primary Care Innovation Center (PCIC). He founded the nonprofit to improve quality and reduce costs by coordinating support for \u201csuper utilizers\u201d \u2014 the top 1 percent of patients according to the number of medical visits and costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the $2.8 trillion spent on healthcare in America, half is allocated to five percent of the population,\u201d Buck said. \u201cWe can save about 30 percent of costs by coordinating their care, and even more important than that is the difference changing their community infrastructure makes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a passion of mine to figure out how to use evidence-based guidelines to inform our care,\u201d he said. Through the PCIC, two years of research has led to the third phase of programming which just now is bringing in 15 \u201csuper utilizer\u201d clients every three months for newly designed care coordination. He\u2019s excited about the possibilities, noting that their studies show even small changes in care delivery, such as providing same-day appointments, can substantially improve participation and outcomes.<\/p>\n

In 2006, Buck established Houston\u2019s Doctors for Change and the Jail In-reach Project, and in 2008, he founded the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship\u2014Houston-Galveston. Three years ago he served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advisory board for health reform, developing a plan for the nation\u2019s new healthcare exchanges.<\/p>\n

Still a practicing physician, Buck also is a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, where he earned his M.D., and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston where he earned a master\u2019s in public health prior to med school.<\/p>\n

Buck\u2019s CV includes an impressive list of publications, roles on nonprofit boards, involvement in professional organizations, and awards such as the Texas Medical Association Foundation\u2019s 2014 Champion of Health Award and the Texas Academy of Family Physicians\u2019 Public Health Leader Award for both 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just such a gift\u2026the thought of being able to be useful,\u201d Buck said about his life\u2019s work. \u201cThere\u2019s a CC thread through all of this. I had dreams there that I was finally being allowed to breathe. I was being given a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really didn\u2019t learn how to think or write until I went to CC. There I gained the skills to think critically and a framework for life-long learning\u2026.So much of\u00a0 what I\u2019ve done has been on the block-style plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It was a course on war and violence, and one about freedom and authority, plus the assistance of Biology Professor Jack Carter, Buck said, that sent him on a \u201cformative experience\u201d volunteering in India after he graduated with a biology degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot happened on that trip,\u201d Buck said, including being mugged, working alongside the \u2018spiritually enormous\u2019 Mother Teresa, carrying dead bodies, and saving a life when no one with experience was available to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized if I actually knew how to do something I could be useful,\u201d he said. Buck was taken with the inadequate healthcare system and \u201cwanted to make a difference.\u201d That\u2019s why, even in medical school, he began his pattern of starting clinics for the poor, something he did in various locations\u2014 eventually expanding to larger efforts of coordinating broader care systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just like to leave this place a little better,\u201d Buck said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working toward a \u201cmore caring\u201d approach, Dr. David Buck \u201983 believes it\u2019s possible to save billions of dollars while giving the needy better healthcare. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a cruel system that can precipitate and maintain homelessness,\u201d said the family physician and healthcare-reform advocate. For more than 25 years, Buck has worked to improve treatment for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-9662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-august-2015","tag-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9662"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9665,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9662\/revisions\/9665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}