Dr. Smith is a physician specializing in Internal Medicine and Population Health, who also holds a PhD in Medical Humanities with an emphasis on the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Medical Ethics. He is an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston School of Public Health, an Arnold P. Gold Professor, a Fellow of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Hunan Normal University. He was one of the inaugural recipients of the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
In addition to his activities as a practitioner, educator, researcher and ethicist, Dr. Smith is also a founder and, subsequently, Executive Director of Frontera de Salud, a state-wide organization of volunteer medical, nursing, health professions and public health graduate students providing care to under-served communities throughout south and central Texas and along the Texas Gulf Coast, with chapters at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, the University of Texas School of Public Health and the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (for a 5 minute documentary on Frontera, see the video on YouTube).
Dr. Smith has received numerous institutional, state and national grants and awards for his work as a healthcare professions educator and specialist in community-based chronic disease prevention and control, as well as his research in medical humanities, ethics and professionalism, and is a core consultant for the China Medical Board on rural health in China and the PRC Ministry of Education on medical education.