AMMG Presents 2012 Alan P. Mintz Award to Dr. Michale Barber
Jeff Morris
On the morning of Friday, November 2nd at the Clinical Applications for Age Management Medicine Conference in Las Vegas, NV, Michale J. “Mickey” Barber, M.D. was presented with the 2012 Alan P. Mintz Award for Clinical Excellence in Age Management Medicine.
Dr. Barber is the sixth recipient of the annual award, presented by AMMG since 2007. “Dr. Mickey Barber clearly represents Dr. Mintz’s vision for superior patient care, healthy living, quality of life and entrepreneurship," said Greg Fillmore, AMMG Co-Founder and Conference Director. "As the owner of two Cenegenics Medical Institutes in the Carolinas, Dr. Barber stands heads and shoulders above others in her field and is perfectly appropriate as the first female recipient of the Alan P. Mintz, M.D. Award for Clinical Excellence in Age Management Medicine.”
Dr. Barber is presented with the Alan P. Mintz Award by the 2009 recipient, Robert D. Willix, Jr., M.D.
Dr. Barber, the CEO/CMO of Cenegenics Carolinas, is a board certified anesthesiologist and former assistant professor of Tulane University who graduated from The College of Charleston, completed medical school at The Medical University of South Carolina, did her residency at Tulane University, and finished her fellowship at Harvard. During her training and career in academic medicine, she received several awards for clinical performance and teaching skills. Throughout her academic and private practice, she passionately pursued her interest in health, nutrition, exercise and mind-body medicine. Further studies and certification in age management medicine allowed her to combine her unique interests and training to empower her patients to live vigorous, healthy lives at any age. Dr. Barber offers an integrative approach to age management medicine while providing the patient with assessment of hormonal balance and overall health and disease risk. Her philosophy for successful aging includes maintaining energy, health and sexual vigor through shared responsibility of the patient-doctor team.
Dr. Barber’s affiliation and training with experts in the study the mind-body science distinguishes her medical practice as a unique approach to youthful aging. Her patients have a lifelong system for integrating a healthy mind and healthy body into a youthful aging plan.
After several years of affiliation with Cenegenics Medical Institute, the association grew into a partnership and the opening of Cenegenics Carolinas in April 2006. Dr. Barber is a Senior Partner with Cenegenics Medical Institute and was the first partner to open a Cenegenics center outside of the home office in Las Vegas. Still very active at the corporate level, Dr. Barber serves as the Physician Advisor for Cenegenics Living Online, is the Medical Editor of the Cenegenics Pharmacy Newsletter and is also the Medical Director of the Cenegenics Education and Research Foundation’s Medical Library.
We actually profiled Dr. Barber in our September 2006 issue. In that article, part of a series about mainstream physicians who had made the switch to age management medicine, she revealed that she had become interested in this specialty after experiencing a personal health crisis:
When she was in her early 40s, Dr. Barber became seriously ill. Suffering from severe hypertension, she wound up in intensive care for a month. It took her three years to fully recover—but those three years turned out to be life-changing. It was during her recuperation that she became very interested in toxicity and chemical/hormonal imbalance, and began studying all she could about their effects on the body.
As she got better, Dr. Barber wanted to get back to her practice—but not the same type of practice as before. She was learning more about an integrative approach to medicine, partly by attending several conferences. She wound up receiving a new certification in Age Management Medicine from Cenegenics Institute. Having moved back to Charleston, she says she discovered her new path by accident. “Out of the blue, a local physician in Charleston asked if I’d like to bring an anti-aging practice into his plastic surgery office,” she recalls. She thought about it, and realized that wasn’t the approach she wanted to take. Dr. Barber began her own part-time practice three years ago, and two years ago expanded the Barber Medical Institute to a full-time practice in Charleston. “As far as I know, it’s the only anti-paging practice in South Carolina,” says Dr. Barber...
“I’m very pleased and surprised with the way things are going,” says Dr. Barber. “The practice is doing very well.” Last year she had a picture article done for a magazine. Perhaps most proudly, though, Dr. Barber announces that when she turned 50, she competed in a figure competition. It’s not vanity talking, though; just relief that her health problems are behind her, and pride that her own age management regimen is clearly working.
It is most poignant that Dr. Barber is honored with this particular award, because in July 2007 she shared with us her very personal recollections of Dr. Mintz:
"
I first met Alan five years ago at a conference. I was really struck by his energy, his passion for life, and his devotion to his family and medicine. He was the first physician with whom I always felt I was on the same page (granted, he was several chapters ahead). Alan was always someone I could just pick up the phone and call.
I was always grateful for his confidence in me, for taking me under his wing and treating me as an equal in his eyes...
I would pretty much call him every morning, as soon as I got into the office after my workout. I knew he would sit down after his workout at 6 am Las Vegas time, and we would talk...I have always seen medicine a bit differently from some of my colleagues. He certainly helped my confidence in that area...I get e-mails every day from patients who thank me—something I never experienced before.
I miss him, and I think about him every morning when I sit down at my desk and have my coffee."
L to R: Conference Planning Committee Chair Derrick DeSilva, M.D.; Dr. Willix; Dr. Barber
