The Doctor's Black Bag

The Doctor's Back Bag chronicles Doctor Elwood L Schmidt's journey from college through general medical practice in small towns dotting the western United States. This is one man's story of rural medical practice in the American west, a story representing many other physicians of the time. Find out what it's like to be the only doctor in town.

The Doctor's Black bag chronicles Doctor Elwood L Schmidt's journey from college through general practice in small towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Dr. Schmidt's life gives us a glance into medical practice with the Hopi and Navajo in Arizona and the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe people in Nevada. His interactions with patients and his involvement in community life are typical of a doctor in the West.

Elwood L Schmidt was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1931. He attended Texas A&M where he was a member of the cadet corps and received his MD degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, in 1956. His career took him to Native American reservations and small western towns. He learned the pressures and joys of being the only physician in a town. He was profiled by The New Yorker magazine in 1972 as an example of a small town medical professional. Dr Schmidt has been a Member of the American Medical Association since 1959, a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians since 1962, a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice from 1972 to 2000, and the Medical Director of Hospice of Yuma from 1980 to 1995.