There were very few specialists when I came here. There were a few, but there was no strict criteria for exactly who did what. At Winter Park and at the San and even at the Orange, there were a lot of doctors, returned missionaries, and well trained family doctors, some of the bread and butter surgery. That was okay, but at Winter Park here’s what happened…
Listen as Dr. C. David Price details the progress of medicine in Central Florida in this second part of our series Medicine in Central Florida. From antibiotics to robotics, he tells us how “medicine really improved with the advent of highly trained specialists.”
In the 1950s, Dr. Price was the only Board Certified surgeon from Orlando to Jacksonville. On November 30, 2012 the University of Florida Research and Academic Center opened at Lake Nona enhancing Orlando’s medical city. Orlando now has some of the world’s leading medical specialists and offers top medical facilities.
Dr. Price’s son, Dr. Charles T. Price, works in Central Florida as “Director of the International Hip Dysplasia Institute (IHDI), where he leads an international group of orthopedic surgeons in efforts to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hip dysplasia, the most common abnormality in newborn infants and a frequent cause of hip arthritis in adults. He is principal investigator and coordinator for a multi-national clinical trial for treatment for infant hip dislocations.”
Read more. His new book published this year, Can You Feel It in Your Bones? How a Doctor’s Quest Uncovered the Hidden Benefits of Silicon for Bone Health goes beyond traditional medicine with research on nutrition and silicon.
Learn more about how Orlando became the medical city it is today in this two part medical oral history interview with Dr. C. David Price.
General Surgeon Dr. C. David Price Medical Oral History Interview, 2012 – LISTEN Part I (14:43)
General Surgeon Dr. C. David Price Medical Oral History Interview, 2012 – LISTEN Part II (12:15)
Dr. C. David Price is a founding member of the Florida Association of General Surgeons and the first Board Certified Surgeon in Winter Park. He served in WWII and the Korean War. Before coming to Central Florida he was Chief of Surgery at Biloxi Air Force Hospital and worked as a surgeon in the Veterans Administration Hospital. His private practice in Central Florida spans three decades (1954-1987) and numerous leadership positions such as head of the Orange County Medical Society Grievance Committee, Board of Trustee for Winter Park Memorial Hospital, and involvement in numerous church and civic activities.
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Dr. C. David PriceWhen Florida native Dr. C. David Price came to Orlando in 1954, he was the only fully qualified General Surgeon between Orlando and Jacksonville. You had to join the Orange County Medical Society to practice medicine and have hospital privileges. Emergency care came from local doctors who met their patients at the emergency room. Ambulance service was a funeral parlor hearse provided by Cox Parker Funeral Home. The doctors and lawyers had cookouts together; and for entertainment, Gene Jewett, founder of Jewett Orthopedic Clinic, played the ukulele in Jaw Bones Ragtime Band.
Today Orlando is a medical city as specialists build on the medical progress of the WWII generation of military physicians, medical missionaries and general surgeons, who were trained to do anything and everything.
Dr. Price's son, Dr. Charles T. Price, is president and founder of the Institute for Better Bone Health, director of the International Hip Dysplasia Institute, professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, and orthopedic surgeon at Arnold Palmer Medical Center. In his 2012 book, Can You Feel It In Your Bones? How a Doctor's Quest Uncovered the Hidden Benefits of Silicon for Bone Health, Dr. Charles T. Price's investigations into silicon and the role of nutrition in bone health anticipate the future of medicine in Orlando today.
In this first in a series on Medicine in Central Florida, Dr. C. David Price, outlines the medical infrastructure in place when he arrived in Central Florida in the 1950s. He tells how his degree in parasitology and decision to become a tropical disease doctor was changed by the War Man Power Commission. University of Florida offered him a job working on liver fluke disease in cattle in the Kissimmee River Valley, instead he went to medical school and wound up as Chief of Surgery at Biloxi Air Force Hospital during the Korean War. After serving in two wars and working as a surgeon at the Veteran's Administration Hospital, Dr. Price came to Central Florida and became Winter Park's first Board Certified Surgeon in 1954.
Dr. Dave C. Price is a founding member of the Florida Association of General Surgeons and served as head of the Orange County Medical Society Grievance Committee for 12 years. He talks about the hospitals and emergency care services available in Central Florida when he arrived in the 1950s, and the Orange County Medical Society's authority on medical practice in this excerpt (below) from a medical oral history interview with Dr. Price on August 2, 2012.
General Surgeon Dr. C. David Price Medical Oral History Interview, 2012, Part II
There were very few specialists when I came here. There were a few, but there was no strict criteria for exactly who did what. At Winter Park and at the San and even at the Orange, there were a lot of doctors, returned missionaries, and well trained family doctors, some of the bread and butter surgery. That was okay, but at Winter Park here's what happened...
LISTEN as Dr. C. David Price details the progress of medicine in Central Florida in this second part of our series Medicine in Central Florida. From antibiotics to robotics, he tells us how "medicine really improved with the advent of highly trained specialists."
In the 1950s, Dr. Price was the only Board Certified surgeon from Orlando to Jacksonville. On November 30, 2012 the University of Florida Research and Academic Center opened at Lake Nona enhancing Orlando's medical city. Orlando now has some of the world's leading medical specialists and offers top medical facilities.
Dr. Price's son, Dr. Charles T. Price, works in Central Florida as "Director of the International Hip Dysplasia Institute (IHDI), where he leads an international group of orthopedic surgeons in efforts to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hip dysplasia, the most common abnormality in newborn infants and a frequent cause of hip arthritis in adults. He is principal investigator and coordinator for a multi-national clinical trial for treatment for infant hip dislocations." Read more. His new book published this year, Can You Feel It in Your Bones? How a Doctor's Quest Uncovered the Hidden Benefits of Silicon for Bone Health goes beyond traditional medicine with research on nutrition and silicon.
Learn more about how Orlando became the medical city it is today in this two part medical oral history interview with Dr. C. David Price.
General Surgeon Dr. C. David Price Medical Oral History Interview, 2012 - LISTEN Part I (14:43)
General Surgeon Dr. C. David Price Medical Oral History Interview, 2012 - Part II (12:15) LISTEN BELOW
Dr. C. David Price is a founding member of the Florida Association of General Surgeons and the first Board Certified Surgeon in Winter Park. He served in WWII and the Korean War. Before coming to Central Florida he was Chief of Surgery at Biloxi Air Force Hospital and worked as a surgeon in the Veterans Administration Hospital. His private practice in Central Florida spans three decades (1954-1987) and numerous leadership positions such as head of the Orange County Medical Society Grievance Committee, Board of Trustee for Winter Park Memorial Hospital, and involvement in numerous church and civic activities.