MU Family Physician Recognized For His International Medical Service

After serving for 10 years in Nepal, Joseph LeMaster now cares for Mid-Missouri families

Joseph LeMaster

Joseph LeMaster, MD, associate professor in the University of Missouri School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine, has received the international medicine award from the Institute for International Medicine. The institute presents this award annually to a professional who has made a significant contribution to health in developing nations.

LeMaster joined MU's faculty in 2002. He attended medical school at the University of Kansas and was inspired when he completed an elective medical rotation in Nepal. After completing his family medicine residency in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1990, LeMaster and his wife, Judy, served for six years at Nepal's Okhaldhunga Hospital - a 32-bed facility that provided the only medical care for an area of 300,000 people. During that time, LeMaster promoted maternal-child health through the Okhaldhunga Primary Health Care Program. From 1996 to 2000, he served on the senior health management team of the United Mission to Nepal and conducted leprosy research with The Leprosy Mission at Anandaban Leprosy Hospital, all in Kathmandu.

During a 1993 to 1994 furlough from his work in Nepal, LeMaster completed a master's degree studying public health of developing countries at the London School of Tropical Medicine. He completed a master's degree in public health with a focus on epidemiology the University of Washington in Seattle in 2002, after his return from Nepal.

In his family medicine practice at MU, LeMaster's clinical interests include the care of diabetic patients, as well as children and adults of all ages. He is particularly interested in promoting physical activity. His research interests include community-based participatory research on physical activity and wellness topics among adults and children - as well as studying the effects of exercise on chronic disease processes.

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