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Physician heard opportunity knocking in private forensic medical field One day Dr. Bruce Levy cut open a dead woman’s stomach and found it was full of pills. That discovery and the events that followed led Levy to pursue a career in forensic medicine. Today, the 46 year-old New Yorker is a businessman who remains active in finding out why people died. “I think the opportunity to be able to study the human body is absolutely fascinating.” He said. Levy is Tennessee’s medical examiner and President and CEO of Forensic Medical, the private firm that last year received a $2.5 million contract to administer the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s office. The company is in an unusual position; it’s trying to earn a profit by conducting autopsies on people whose deaths came violently or mysteriously. The Nashville-based firm is on track to make $200,000 in profit its first year with the county, despite adding new staff and services, Levy said. The firm, which also runs the regional medical examiner’s office in Davidson County, earned total profits of $800,000 last year, he said. The secret is to stay nimble and cut unnecessary costs, Levy said. For instance, the firm has negotiated low rates with Nashville-based Aegis Sciences Corp. in exchange for all of its toxicology tests business. Such negotiations are difficult in a government system because of rules on competitive bidding, he said. Levy uses the language of business today, but he’s trained as a doctor. His intrest in forensic investigations stems from an episode in 1989 when he was a medical resident at the University of Massachusetts. A doctor assigned him to perform an autopsy on an elderly woman who died in her hospital bed. She had suffered from heart disease, so her death seemed unsurprising. But the turning point came when Levy discovered pills in her stomach. His hospital happened to share space with the Massachusetts medical examiner, and experienced staffers led him through the investigation. “It turned out that the woman had committed suicide,” he said. “She had hoarded and overdosed on her heart medication.” Levy said the doctor that treated the woman was horrified that he had burdened the family with the knowledge of her suicide. The doctor told Levy that he would have flushed the pills down the sink and never mentioned having seeing them. The unfortunate souls that carry their mysteries to the autopsy table in Madison Avenue have died by unexplained natural causes or by homicide, suicide, or accident. “I think Forensic Medical has been key in helping us recruit those people, said Chief Medical Examiner Karen Chancellor. Only 400 to 450 doctors around the nation specialize in conducting autopsies, Levy said, and some doctors aren’t keen on joining a government entity, he said. The state-run University of Tennessee ran the office previously. Levy argues that a private firm gives doctors more control over their work environment. “We are a very flexible group, which I think is also very attractive positions, who tend to be independent-minded at times, particularly forensic pathologists, he said. Levy said recruiting wasn’t affected by the federal criminal case against Dr. O.C. Smith, the formal medical examiner whose resignation helped lead Shelby County to give the contract to Forensic Medical. Smith was accused of faking an assault himself, but in 2005 a jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquitting him and prosecutors didn’t retry the case. Chancellor and Levy said the increased number of pathologists will help the office conduct more autopsies. Currently, it does about 700 per year and does cursory external exams on some other cadavers because of lack of time, Levy said. Chancellor and Levy said they hope to expand outside of Shelby County to become a true regional forensic medical center, to reestablish a residency training program in forensic medicine and to move to new offices. Levy said seeing so much death helps him focus on the important things in life. “Enjoying what you are doing and having good friends and family, and living each day as it might be your last,” he said. “Because we know probably better than anybody that it can be.”
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