General Preventive Medicine

General Preventive Medicine involves the combination of clinical screening, counseling, and prophylaxis of disease. With a heavy reliance upon lifestyle (food, exercise, stress reduction, and more), the practice uses an integrative approach to provide balance in your health. Integrative Healthcare is the term being used for a “new movement driven by the desires of consumers but now getting the attention of many academic health centers… It has a far larger meaning and mission in that it calls for restoration of the focus of medicine on health & healing, and emphasizes the centrality of the doctor-patient relationship. It insists on patients being active participants in their health care as well as physicians viewing patients as whole persons – active ­ minds, community members, and spiritual beings as well as physical bodies. Finally, it asks physicians to serve as guides, role models, and mentors, as well as dispensers of therapeutic aids.” Dr. Snyderman and Dr. Weil

The General Preventive Medicine Program involves an annual plan of services as follows:

• Annual Preventive Comprehensive History, Diagnostic Test Orders & Examination
• Yearly Health Risk Assessment
• Nutritional Consultation
• Preventive Strategy office visits every 4 months
• Secure Telemedicine portal for messaging
• Online 24/7 priority appointment scheduling

Fees:

$200/month for the term of one year or $2000 if paid in full at first visit (courtesy discount)

Acute care 30 minute and 60 minute appointments: GPM patients may schedule appointments (in addition to the specified program visits) for 30 minutes at a fee of $125, or 60 minutes at a fee of $225.

Experience

Dr. Ward specializes in Preventive Medicine. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Aerospace Medicine.  After completing his residency training in 1992, Dr. Ward joined Wyle Laboratories (formerly Krug) as a physician supporting the design of Space Station medical facilities.  In 1993 he worked as a Flight Surgeon at NASA Johnson Space Center in support of the Space Shuttle program.  Later, he lived in Star City, Russia as a physician for the US/Russia Shuttle-Mir Programs until 1997. 

He returned to his native Appalachia, began work at Blue Ridge Hyperbarics in Asheville, NC, and formed Toxaway Wilderness Experience in 1999.  Consulting with, educating and treating individuals in a travel and wilderness setting was a continuation of his experience with ‘expeditionary medicine’.  He has been a physician in private practice in Western North Carolina since that time. He has more than ten years experience in Acute Care as a treating physician at ProMed Minor Emergency Center and NextCare Urgent Care in Asheville, NC.  

In 2008, he started a private practice in preventive and integrative medicine.  His practice, General Preventive Medicine, has grown and evolved for over a decade, and now includes care for individuals as part of the General Preventive Medicine Program, consultations for travel and wilderness medicine, and group health and wellness projects, such as the City of Brevard Doctor Care Program.  He is a member of the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons and the Wilderness Medical Society.

Professional Information

• David F. Ward, M.D., M.S.
• Specialty: Aerospace Medicine, American Board of Preventive Medicine
• Years in Practice: 31 years
• Education and Training:
  • Duke University, Durham, NC , B.S. Planetary and Evolutionary Biology (Program II), 1984
  • Wright State University, Dayton, OH , M.S., Aerospace Medicine, 1991
  • East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine, M.D. , 1988
  • Transitional Residency: Spartanburg Regional, Spartanburg, SC
  •  Residency:  Wright State University, Dayton, OH   

Papers, Abstracts, and Publications

• Inflight Medical Support Activities for the Mir-18 Mission. D.F. Ward,M.R. Barratt, G. Kobzev, O. Anoshkin, and I.B. Goncharov. Aerospace Medical Association 67th Annual Scientific Program, May, 1996.
  • Preflight Medical Support Activities for the Mir-18 Mission. M.Barratt, D.Ward, O.O.Ryumin. Aerospace Medical Association 67th Annual Scientific Program, May, 1996.
  • Validation of Parabolic Flight Microgravity CPR Animal Model. Johnston, Campbell, Billica, Ward, Norfleet, Eichstadt, Robinson, Jennings, Kucharz, Rouse, Simmons, Lloyd, Beck, Barratt, Doursout. Aerospace Medical Association 67th Annual Scientific Program, May, 1996.
  • Microgravity Performance and Evaluation of Advanced Cardiac Life Support Procedures Utilizing an Animal Model. Johnston, Campbell, Billica, Ward, Norfleet, Eichstadt, and Robinson. Aerospace Medical Association 64th Annual Scientific Program, May, 1993.
  • Microgravity Performance of Advanced Trauma Life Support. Campbell, Johnston, Billica, Norfleet, Ward, and Eichstadt. Aerospace MedicalAssociation 64th Annual Scientific Program, May, 1993.
  • Failure of Promethazine to Cause Sedation During Space Flight. Twelfth Frontiers of Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacology Beyond Earth’s Boundaries. James P. Bagian, M.D. and David F. Ward, M.D., May, 1992.
  • Simulation of the Fluid Retention Effects of a Vasopressin Analog Using the Guyton Model of Circulation. R.S. Srinivasan, K. Simanonok, S. Fortney, J. Charles, Ack. D.F.Ward. 14th Annual Meeting of the IUPS Commission on Gravitational Physiology, Berlin, Sept.,1992.
  • The Effects of Lypressin on Hemodynamic Responses to Head-Down Tilt and Orthostatic Stress. D.F. Ward. Aerospace Medical Association 63rd Annual Scientific Program, May, 1991.
  • Computer Simulations for Modeling Physiologic Responses to Spaceflight. Ohio Academy of Sciences, Centennial Symposium, 1991.
  • Cellular Mechanisms of Hyperbaric Oxygen Use and Toxicity on Red Blood Cells: Implications for Blood Product Storage. USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Course, 1990.
  • Mathematical Models of Physiology, East Tennessee State University College of Medicine, Student Papers, 1988.

The office phone number is (828) 883-5666 and the email contact for inquiries is generalinfo@genprevmed.com

Annually subscribed and paid up-to-date program patients can make appointments online at https://go.oncehub.com/GPMlocales

Non-program patients and patients wanting to join the waiting list for the Program can make appointments by contacting the office manager, Josée, at (828) 276-3070