On Thursday, November 14, Barnes Jewish Hospital held its semiannual Medical Staff Association Dinner Meeting at the Eric P. Newman Education Center. The Medical Staff Association honored two recipients of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award, Ralph G. Dacey, MD, of the Department of Neurosurgery and Arnold D. Bullock, MD, of the Department of Surgery.
The Medical Staff Association presents this award to physicians who have provided distinguished service at Barnes-Jewish Hospital network for at least 25 years, recognizing their contributions throughout their medical careers at the institution.
Bullock joined the faculty in 1993, after completing his urology residency at WashU Medicine. Bullock, who is the inaugural Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor in Urology, serves as director of men’s health at WashU Medicine. He was named a Lifetime Achiever in Health Care by the St. Louis American and received the Physician of the Year Award from Christian Hospital in 2019. Bullock has expertise in procedures of vasectomy, prostate treatment, surgical implantation for erectile dysfunction and endourology.
A Career in Community Outreach
At the award ceremony, Bullock was introduced by his constant collaborator in research, Lannis Hall, MD, director of radiation oncology at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Peters. Together, Hall and Bullock have led clinical trials focused on identifying factors that lead to health disparities. In her introduction, Hall discussed her extensive working relationship with Bullock and the depth of their community outreach efforts in the St. Louis region.
Together, Bullock and Hall founded the Prostate Cancer Coalition (PCC), which is dedicated to bringing awareness to disparities in high risk individuals in conjunction with Siteman’s Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD). PCC recommends that men with a high risk of prostate cancer (e.g., black men and those with a close family member with prostate cancer prior to age 65) talk with their doctors about the risks and benefits of screening by the age of 45 or sooner.
“Arnold’s unparalleled commitment to community activism started early,” says Hall. “He began his community outreach during his urology residency at WashU.”
During Bullock’s time in residency there was ongoing research into prostate specific antigen (PSA) as a tool for screening for prostate cancer. Thanks to Bullock’s outreach among the community in St. Louis, the study was able to show that PSA screening was a valid tool for all men.
“His passion for ending health disparities—particularly with prostate cancer—has been continuous for thirty-seven years,” says Hall. She explains that due to federal health policy setbacks in 2012, screenings dropped to 20-25 percent in age-eligible men by 2014.
This is when they took action, forming the PCC with colleagues, Angela Brown, MD, and Bettina Drake, PhD, MPH. Over the next three years, Hall and Bullock reached out to the St. Louis community, speaking at over 100 churches in the area to educate high risk men about the importance of prostate screenings. The group additionally penned many articles and had a nationally syndicated radio show, in efforts to spread the word in a campaign to normalize PSA screenings.
Bullock and his colleagues in PCC were encouraged to raise awareness throughout the African American community because of the stark statistics that showed an increased rate of prostate cancer of 185% of men in St. Louis City and a 150% mortality disparity in St. Louis County.
Before presenting Bullock with his award, William G. Bowen, MD, delivered a short introduction, offering his praise for Bullock’s work during his tenure.
As the person who nominated Bullock for the award, Bowen cites his care and empathy for patients, but also his dedication to community outreach for prevention, as well as his dedication to family and advancing academia.
“Arnold exemplifies dedication to patient care,” says Bowen. “Whether in the operating room doing robotics or laparoscopic surgery, you take the time to take mentees aside teaching them, to pass the baton to them—that’s an indispensable talent. You really are a virtuoso.”
Earned Recognition
Bullock accepted the award, thanking his colleagues for their support along the way.
“I’m very honored,” said Bullock. “When I first heard about this, I was a little embarrassed, because there are so many amazing practitioners in this institution. I definitely do not stand up here alone.”
Bullock thanks his colleagues for their support along the way, saying he finds courage in knowing that if he needs support during surgery, someone is down the hall who can lend a hand.
“Our colleagues help us push the limits of what we can do ourselves, to do more as a collective,” says Bullock. “This center is unique in the sense that we have support from all the specializations available at WashU and BJC.”
Bullock thanks his closest office assistants, Chrishon Newton-Graves and Leona Stokes. “They’ve been my assistants for the majority of my practice,” he says. “There is no way I could have made it to all of these churches, pharmaceutical talks and community engagements, if they weren’t there to make it so.”
“I think about the scene in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, when Tom Hanks is old, and look back on my career and ask myself, ‘was I a good person, did I do a good job, did I earn it?’” says Bullock. “That’s what this award means to me—that I tried to be a good person, and I tried to do my best and I may have earned it.”