{"id":1145,"date":"2016-08-17T19:34:50","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T19:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mc.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltmedicine\/?p=1145"},"modified":"2021-08-11T19:41:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:41:05","slug":"alumni-profile-thomas-davis-m-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/alumni-profile-thomas-davis-m-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Profile: Thomas Davis, M.D."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tom<\/a>
Photo by Daniel Dubois<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Making a World of Difference<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a child living in Chihuahua, Mexico, Thomas Davis, M.D., \u201814, learned early that socioeconomic factors play a significant role in a person\u2019s success, and he\u2019s determined to use his skills to level the playing field for those less fortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to hide the realities of the world there because there is a stark contrast between the wealthy and poor and all the implications of that\u2014access to health care, education and job opportunities,\u201d said Davis, who is a resident physician in Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. \u201cBack in the United States, I was more aware of how that reality holds true here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis, who earned an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University, was an Ingram Scholar, a program that sponsors students who demonstrate a willingness to combine a career with a lifelong commitment to finding solutions to societal problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI credit Vanderbilt and the Ingram Scholarship Program for maturing my understanding of what service means and how I can contribute to the larger community by integrating my professional interests with the needs of society around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

While an undergraduate, Davis served on the board of directors at Siloam Family Health Center, a Nashville charitable clinic for the uninsured, where he also established a bilingual library and literacy program for children. For this, in 2009 he won the prestigious Mary Catherine Strobel Youth Volunteer of the Year Award.<\/p>\n

Davis also assisted Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies Director Ted Fischer on the development of a product called Mani+, a dietary supplement to combat malnutrition in Guatemalan children. For two months, Davis lived in Guatemala where he observed how product packaging affects perception. He discovered if a supplement looked like medicine rather than food, it was more likely to be given only to the high-risk child and not shared among siblings. This project, and meeting Nobel Laureate and Vanderbilt graduate Muhammad Yunus, nearly altered his plans for a career in medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was inspired by Yunus\u2019 ideas about how business can change the trajectory of the poor across the world,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to chase after that, but ultimately I decided to stick with medicine. I feel my medical skills coupled with my social enterprise interests will allow me to do more. I don\u2019t think I would ever be satisfied by just being a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making a World of Difference As a child living in Chihuahua, Mexico, Thomas Davis, M.D., \u201814, learned early that socioeconomic factors play a significant role in a person\u2019s success, and he\u2019s determined to use his skills to level the playing field for those less fortunate. \u201cIt was hard to hide the realities of the world…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,24,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-alumni-profile","category-vm-summer-2016","category-vm-vanderbilt-community"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-it","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}