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In his second year of family practice residency, Vernon Brewer is scanning the horizon, evaluating his many options.

He may pursue a fellowship, may settle down and start practicing in small-town Arkansas, or may even look westward for work on an Indian reservation.

Born in Oklahoma's Claremore Indian Hospital, Brewer is half Cherokee and Shawnee, the son of a full-blooded Native American father and a Caucasian mother.

"My middle name is American Horse," Brewer said. "Even into my 20s, my father's side of the family was still calling me American Horse and a lot of them had no idea my first name was Vernon."

Brewer has many memories from his younger life of attending pow-wows and being surrounded by Native American culture. When he was five, however, Brewer's parents and three younger sisters left Oklahoma for Beebe, Ark. where the town motto is "Your Dream Hometown."

The family made a new life in Beebe, but when Brewer was 12, his father, who was a radio announcer and newspaperman, passed away. It was a seminal event in his life, and eventually, in his choice of a career.

That's because his father's death enabled Brewer to witness one of the greatest strengths of small towns: the ability to come together to support their own. His mother, who worked odd jobs such as being a grocery store cashier, suddenly had become a new widow with four young children. Brewer said she had an understandably hard time raising his sisters and him as a single parent, but the people in the community took an interest in the struggling family and pitched in.

"The community was a tremendous support at that time for us and growing up, and it made such an impression on me," Brewer remembered. "It's not something I'll ever forget, and I made a group of pretty dear friends then, that I keep in touch with to this day."

A bright student, Brewer said being a physician had always been at the back of his mind. He graduated from Beebe High School in 1998 and attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., on scholarship.

"When I got to college, I was searching myself to find out what I wanted to do. Over and over, my heart kept coming back to Beebe and what those people had meant to me," he explained. "I didn't know if I would end up contributing something to that town in particular, but I wanted to contribute to something like that, to be part of something good. I saw medicine as a way to give back to small towns in particular, to serve others."

Brewer graduated from Vanderbilt in 2002 and went straight to medical school, graduating from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences four years later. He took a year off after medical school to teach Biology and Anatomy & Physiology as an adjunct professor at Arkansas State University before joining the AHEC program in Northwest Arkansas.

Primary care attracted Brewer for several reasons, including patient interaction, the severe shortage in primary care, and the flexibility to have more time with the family he hopes to someday have (Brewer is currently single). While the comparably lower reimbursement rates compared with more lucrative specialties dissuade many, Brewer said the financial potential of primary care was not a factor in his decision-making.

"My sisters and I didn't have a lot growing up, so I guess you could say I've never known better," he said. "Then because of college and medical school scholarships I did not have to worry about making a lot of money to pay back debts."

Brewer, who is an avid fan of tennis, especially of Roger Federer, and a currently glum fan of the Razorbacks, also enjoys spending time working out, reading, following politics and spending time with friends. He and his best friend from medical school, orthopedist Justin Franz, have talked about Brewer doing a fellowship in sports medicine, and then the two of them working together, at least part-time.

But being a full-time primary care physician also has a strong pull for Brewer, who feels that more emphasis on primary care could be a huge cost-savings for the U.S. healthcare system. "This is just coming from a youngster in medicine with very little experience yet, but I do wonder, economically and politically, how much more healthcare costs can the country handle?" Brewer opines. "A lot of these diseases can be cut off at the pass early on by primary care docs before they become very serious and very expensive and require more costly therapeutics. With better primary care, I think we could, in the end, save the country money and save people's lives and health."

Brewer enjoys northwest Arkansas, but gets especially enthusiastic when he considers practicing either in or near Beebe in White County or possibly serving the Native American population he long ago left. "I still have those connections to my Indian relatives, but they are not as strong as I would like them to be," Brewer said. "I absolutely have thought of working on a reservation. They are in desperate need for primary care, and that would be a perfect way to give back to a community that is in dire need. Wherever I go, I want to serve."

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