Dr. Roger A. Mason
Dr. Roger A. Mason
Dr. Mason is a USA trained, double board-certified general and vascular surgeon who practiced surgery for over 48 years before transitioning to the practice of Addiction Medicine as a full time focus in 2019. A graduate of Yale University and Yale Medical School, Dr. Mason completed his surgical residency at the University of Colorado Medical Center followed by a vascular surgery fellowship under Dr. Michael DeBakey at Baylor University Medical Center, Houston.
2002-2010
Earlier in his surgical career, Dr. Mason worked in Trinidad and Tobago (2002-2010) providing care for the underserved, and consulted in a number of other Caribbean nations (Grenada, Guyana, Antigua, and Barbados). It was in this environment that Dr. Mason was initially exposed to the jarring consequences caused by disparities in access to health care, and he worked diligently to create a more effective health care system in the region. He formed Caribbean Healing Arts, Inc (2005) whose mission was to promote a fast-track approach to achieve better health outcomes through a socially responsible, private enterprise company. The unique model this company created is based on harnessing medical travel as an economic engine, and it remains a paradigm for health care improvement in developing nations.
Caribbean Healing Arts, Inc transitioned into International Medical Centers of Excellence (2018) and continues to promote the development of health care in emerging nations. Its most recent project is a Medical City project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where a Medical Center of Excellence (a 125 bed Surgical Specialty Hospital), a Nursing school, Medical school, and biomedical research center has been proposed as a part of a new International airport project outside of Addis Ababa.
2012
In 2012, Dr. Mason returned to the US and resumed the practice of surgery in Dumas, Arkansas. While practicing in the Arkansas Delta, he soon realized that health care conditions were not much different from the health care quality he had recently experienced in the Caribbean. He responded to this sobering reality by assembling a team of seasoned domestic healthcare executives and launched WeCare&WeDeliver, Inc that is focused on transforming health care delivery in the US by more effectively integrating medical services delivered by a more personally oriented team of healthcare providers. This patient centric system addresses the growing epidemic of chronic medical diseases and offers a more holistic approach to each patient, addressing each patient’s medical, mental, emotional and behavioral challenges with integrated care management. Care is delivered as much as possible in the patient’s home setting where medical metrics are tracked daily by advanced telemedicine and tele-monitoring. Adverse medical trends are detected early before costly medical crises arise, thereby markedly reducing the overall health expenditure to achieve optimal medical care.
Formation of Healing Hands
Alarmed by the recent surge of the opiate addiction epidemic, this company refocused its attention on developing an improved system for treating this segment of the population. After studying the gaps in addiction care that exist in Arkansas, and indeed throughout the country, Dr. Mason formed Healing Hands Addiction Centers, LLC (HHAC) which opened an office in Warren, Arkansas to treat addiction using a model of care based on Medical Assisted therapy that includes Suboxone, but which squarely focuses on the individual, treating the person holistically and addressing all aspects of their disease. Since establishing this office in Warren, HHAC has opened other satellite offices in Pine Bluff and Little Rock, Arkansas as part of a comprehensive plan to treat addiction in Arkansas by offering an integrated system of care that bridges the many gaps that exist with the current state of fragmented services in this state. The aspiration is to create a system of care that has superior outcomes with industry setting low rates of relapse.
Improving Healthcare through innovation
Finally, Dr. Mason, as an inventor, has several patents which include two medical inventions under development that are anticipated to be major breakthroughs in the delivery of healthcare. One of the inventions will dramatically improve the survival of patients who depend on chronic, repetitive vascular access (kidney failure patients requiring dialysis and cancer patients) and the second invention is a medical diagnostic software that harnesses the AI of a computer to remarkably empower physicians and other healthcare providers to make much more accurate diagnoses and which will then direct the healthcare provider to the most effective and least costly medical management of that patient.