Vidant Health physician elected to national medical post | Eastern North Carolina Now

News Release:

    GREENVILLE - Dr. Mott P. Blair IV, with Vidant Family Medicine-Wallace, has been elected to the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The AAFP is the professional organization that represents 115,900 physicians and medical students nationwide.

    "This is a time of great change in primary care," said Dr. Blair, who has practiced in Wallace for nearly 30 years. "It's important for eastern North Carolina - and rural practitioners - to have someone at the national board level who understands the issues we face."

    A member of AAFP since 1990, Blair has held numerous leadership positions at the state and national level. These roles have prepared him to advocate as a national board member for several key issues that he believes are important. He intends to support efforts to recruit more young people into health careers, to enhance residency training in family medicine, to improve access to primary care and to improve physician payment for care provided to Medicare patients.

    He continues to have an interest in combating childhood obesity. As president of the state academy, he led the development of a community initiative in which family physicians worked with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service to educate young people about the long-term effects of nutrition issues.

    Blair got his start in a small private practice in Wallace, working alongside his father, Dr. James Seaborn Blair, who was chosen national family doctor of the year by the AAFP. Medicine is in the family's DNA. Blair's sister and brother are also physicians in eastern North Carolina, following in the footsteps of their ancestors. They are fourth-generation physicians.

    In recent years, Blair's practice merged with Vidant Health, giving him the support of one of the nation's largest academic medical centers and a growing number of hospitals and colleagues in rural medicine throughout the east. His practice is recognized as a patient-centered medical home, one of the first in the region to earn this national distinction for quality patient care.

    Joining Vidant was like a homecoming, he said, referring to his training at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, now Vidant Medical Center. "I like being part of a mission-driven organization that's focused on health disparities in this region."

    Throughout his career, Blair has earned several awards. He has received the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians Community Teaching Award, the Distinguished Service Award and the state Family Physician of the Year award in 2006-07. He won the Pathology Award from The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and the N.C. Medical Society's Young Physicians Community Service Award.

    Blair earned his bachelor's degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, followed by his medical degree and residency training at ECU. He is board certified in family medicine and serves as an adjunct member of the medical school's faculty.

   Contact: Amy Holcombe, Vidant Health Corporate Communications,

     amy.holcombe@vidanthealth.com  •  (252) 847-2725

    Vidant Health, a mission-driven, not-for-profit corporation, owns, leases or has a majority membership interest in nine eastern North Carolina hospitals and has a management agreement with one other. The health system includes Albemarle Health, Vidant Beaufort Hospital, Vidant Bertie Hospital, Vidant Chowan Hospital, Vidant Duplin Hospital, Vidant Edgecombe Hospital, The Outer Banks Hospital, Vidant Medical Center, Vidant Pungo Hospital, Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital, Vidant Home Health and Hospice, Vidant Wellness Centers, Vidant Medical Group and is affiliated with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. On the web at www.vidanthealth.com