Duval physician realizes a dream

By Sarah Skidmore -Times-Union staff writer

One summer when Yank Coble Jr. was about 20, he spent his break working at a Vermont resort. It was the first time he really lived anywhere besides Burlington, a small industrial town in North Carolina. When he first arrived at the resort, the man in charge designated Coble as the entertainment director, one of the most coveted positions.

Afterward, Coble thanked the man for giving him the spot but said, "I think you've got the wrong person because I can't sing or dance at all." "I'm not looking for you to be the show," the director responded. "I want you to pick out the right people to make the show." Coble, now 64 and operating a private medical practice in Jacksonville, laughs recalling how simple the answer was. "That's how it is now. It may appear the focus is on one person, but it's on everyone," Coble said. Pretty humble words for the man whose voice will speak for the largest physician organization in America come June when he takes the reins as president of the American Medical Association. Considered the voice of the medical profession, the AMA provides information on health issues to the public, medical community, government and others worldwide. It works in developing and promoting standards in medical practice, research and education and also advocates for patients and physicians. Coble said he is going to be taking his cues from others once again by drawing on the knowledge of medical professionals from Jacksonville and across the nation to help him speak on behalf of the AMA's 290,000 members.

"Quietly effective"

Coble's personality hardly reveals he has a knowledge arsenal of his own to tap. "He's not a limelight seeker," said Charles Hayes, a retired Jacksonville nephrologist who has worked with Coble on several boards. Hayes described Coble's methods as "quietly effective." A physician and active researcher for more than 35 years, his curriculum vitae reads like a short novel. He has run a private practice in Jacksonville for 30 years where he focuses on nutrition. The practice has been open only part time for the past two years because he has a slew of responsibilities. Only a few of these include work as a clinical professor of medicine in Jacksonville and serving on the advisory Committee to the Director for the National Institutes of Health. He is a past president of the American Society of Internal Medicine, the Florida Medical Association and the Duval County Medical Society. Not only was he a founding member and first president of the America Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, he is also the namesake of the group's annual award, the Yank D. Coble Jr. M.D. Distinguished Endocrinologist Award given yearly by the group. Coble says it's just a natural evolution of things. "He really is genuinely sincere," his wife, Shereth, said. "But he's worked so hard his whole life and this is really the culmination of it." They married in 1999. He was nervous about dragging her into a hectic life like his but said she is more adept at the rigors than he, and it's almost as if she were born into it. "I kind of came into this later on, so I get to look at what he's done all at once and say, `Wow, it's wonderful,'" she said. They both have been on the other side of medicine, when they lost their spouses from previous marriages. Now they live at Neptune Beach, and between the two of them have five kids and seven grandchildren. He likely won't see as much of the First Coast once his term as active president begins. One AMA representative said he'll basically be "on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Rapid changes

He's already getting a taste of things to come. The one-year position is actually three years of service in disguise. In the year preceding, during and following his term — Coble will have some AMA spokesman responsibilities. He flies somewhere weekly now. But he is unruffled by the fact that he is going from his small one-story private practice to this new, even more rigorous lifestyle. It seems there is little that ruffles him. In the midst of a tornado of medical issues — patients' bill of rights, stem cells, cloning and more — Coble seems to be calmly standing in the middle taking it all in. "It's just such an exciting time for medicine and science," Coble said. "There is so much scientifically happening, we hear a lot about stem cells and Medicare, and those are very important, but there is so much going on we don't hear about." There is a sort of gentlemen's code that prevents the president-elect from commenting on his focus of his term until he takes the position, according to the AMA. But he said he will continue to focus on the AMA policies and that issues are changing so rapidly they require constant evaluation. The AMA hasn't been far from the spotlight lately — its opposition to human cloning and also its support of stem-cell research have been key voices in some of the hot topics of the past few weeks. Each AMA policy is the result of a complex scientific and ethical evaluation by several AMA boats. The president serves the public as the experienced voice for these collective decisions. "I think the AMA is extraordinarily fortunate to get Dr. Coble at this point and time," said Jim Borland Jr., friend and colleague of Coble for almost 30 years. "Because of his relationship with other medical organizations and his abilities as a person who can build trust and able to build consensus about a difficult issue, he'll be invaluable."

Coble said while the AMA is a professional organization, a large part of its goal is getting information to the public. The `'big picture voice,'' as he calls it, requires addressing the concerns of the public more and more. He said public interest is understandable right now because some of the hot issues are so new. "Most of the science part sorts itself out, but it's the social issues and the social-political implications that are difficult," Coble said.

A long journey

This basic approach to things seems to be his trademark. His Jacksonville office is no frills — smallish and understated, with the exception of the art from his world travels. He collected the pieces when he worked as a researcher for the National Institute of Health in places such as Cairo and London. It's been a long journey for Coble, but an unwavering one. "I've always wanted to be a physician — I've never wanted to do anything else. Where it would lead and its various twists and turns were unpredictable," Coble said. It was his grandmother that inspired him to be a physician. As a widow with a sixth-grade education, she sewed the toes on socks to make money. "She had such minimal resources but was just optimistic and enthusiastic about everything," Coble recalled. "She was a remarkable lady."She always wanted to be a physician, and Coble figured there would be nothing better than to do what she had wanted to do. "She never wanted me to be president of the United States — she always said I should grow up to be the president of the AMA." And so Coble decided that he would be a physician. "It never occurred to me that no one in my family had gone to college," he mused. He said the small-town support and support of local physicians helped get him to Duke University and on through medical school. "I just thought, if they think I can, then I can probably do it."

And now, his supporters have full confidence he can do it again. William Flaherty, chairman of the board for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, with whom Coble serves, said he has a "positive approach, commitment to prevent and support for science. . These qualities will serve him and his colleagues well as president." Borland said he has full confidence in Coble's potential. "He is a dear friend, and I trust him implicitly, and I think most people who know him do the same."

Jacksonville Medicine / August/September, 2001