Imagine being transferred to a hospital where the temperature is 20 below outside, and 40 inches of snow fill the parking lot. Few physicians would sign on for such an assignment. For a brave few, it’s all in a day’s work…

Col. Walt Franz, MD, of U.S. Army Medical Corps headquartered in Amarah/Al Kut, Iraq, has just begun the work of partnering with Iraqi physicians and nurses for the first time since 2003. In 2004, as a public health team leader, his primary task was helping Iraqi providers with hospital and clinic projects…When he’s at home and working at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., he practices primarily as a family physician.

The Hospitalist, by Andrea Sattinger, 2/3/2010

Tags: Breast Cancer, General Internal Medicine, Iraq, officer