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Photo by Mike Yoder

Tom Marcellino, left, discusses an ankle injury with Keely Stenseng, Lawrence, at Marcellino's office at Mt. Oread Family Practice.

Photo by Mike Yoder

Lawrence physician Tom Marcellino, left, visits with Regina Schonberg, LPN, at his office at Mt. Oread Family Practice. Marcellino has practiced medicine halfway around the world and has special interests in integrative, preventative and wilderness medicine.

Can you imagine a world where many of today's most common health problems - diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, obesity and cancer - could be prevented rather than being treated with expensive drugs and surgeries?

Lawrence physician Tom Marcellino can.

"Health care costs in the United States are escalating, and our population is living longer," he says. "It's critical for us to work at disease prevention. During my residencies, I learned prevention has more resounding effects than treating chronic symptoms."

Like many in the medical profession, Marcellino believes the health care paradigm is already changing and the future lies in educating the public.

"Many chronic diseases can be prevented through lifestyle modification," says Marcellino, 29, who is board certified in family medicine and has special interests in integrative, preventative and wilderness medicine.

He's already practiced medicine halfway around the world, and he hopes to continue learning and traveling with an open mind in order to better serve patients as these shifts take place.

He inherited his adventurous and serving spirit from his Sicilian and Swedish ancestors who immigrated to America. His fraternal grandmother worked for the director of the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., and his great-aunt traveled extensively in Africa setting up schools for the poor.

His father was president of the International Venomous Snake Society and passed his love of snakes to his son.

"During summers in Phoenix, I accompanied him as he relocated rattlesnakes from people's homes to the countryside," Marcellino says.

He's still interested in snakes and the use of their venom to treat certain diseases.

This reptilian knowledge may be useful in future travels to remote parts of the world. He's traveled to Belize as a preceptor for medical students on a mission trip and spent time in rain forest villages sleeping in locals' huts. He treated Aborigines when he worked for the Sydney Aboriginal Medical Service in Australia.

"We traveled to remote villages and learned about the burden of diabetes in native populations who'd been introduced to Western diets," he says with a hint of sadness.

Like his great-aunt, he's also spent time in Africa working mostly in Mnazi Mmoja hospital at Stone Town, Zanzibar.

"I learned much about the innate natural healing ability of the human body there," he says.

He'd like to accompany a team of researchers on a remote expedition one day, where he'd have the opportunity to practice wilderness medicine by providing medical care with little or no help from modern medical technology.

His toughness in adapting to and surviving in remote conditions was inherited from his maternal Swedish ancestors who lived in dugouts after arriving in Marquette, in central Kansas. The family survived the 1905 tornado that destroyed most of Marquette. One of his great-great uncles established Fremont Lutheran Church and returned to Sweden to obtain funds from the Swedish King to help found Bethany College in Lindsborg.

After his parents' divorce, Marcellino and his sister moved from Phoenix to McPherson, where his maternal grandfather, Richard Johnson, practiced internal medicine, and lived on rolling pasturelands overlooking Kanopolis Lake.

"My grandfather was a great inspiration to me," Marcellino says. "He inspired me to have a love for nature and medicine. I graduated from Kansas University School of Medicine ... in 2005, exactly fifty years after he did."

After medical school, Marcellino completed residencies at the Mayo Clinic, in Arizona and the Via Christi Family Medicine Center in Wichita. He was awarded a month "away rotation" at the University of Arizona's School of Integrative Medicine which was spearheaded by Andrew Weil, M.D., one of integrative medicine's leading pioneers.

"Integrative medicine is open to combining allopathic (conventional) medicine with complementary and alternative treatments. It advocates supporting patients to use whatever form of treatments best help them achieve good health, and prevent further problems," Marcellino says. "These shifts are happening whether we like them or not. Today, more people want to be proactive about their own health. As an allopathic medical doctor, I need to be open to support and educate people, especially young people, in this process."

Marcellino will have such an opportunity with his own children. He and his wife, Whitney, from Tonganoxie, a KU graduate in gerontology and long-term care administration, have one daughter with a son on the way.

- Eileen Roddy writes weekly profiles of people living in the Lawrence area. Have an idea for the column? E-mail her at roddyphillips@aol.com.