Robert W. Backus, M.D.

2003 VMS Physician of the Year

Dr. Backus, who modestly describes himself as a “good country physician,” has practiced medicine in Townshend since 1978. For 17 years he was in private practice and more recently he has been on staff at the Carlos G. Otis Health Care Center. Since 1998 he has been the center’s medical director. Dr. Backus is also the director of emergency care at the Grace Cottage Hospital.

Like most of today’s physicians, Dr. Backus sees many of his patients at the health center and in the hospital. But he also makes time to visit elderly and incapacitated patients in their homes, where he finds he can learn much more about them and their health problems. “You walk in their shoes. It gives you a much greater appreciation for how courageous a lot of these people are, especially in a time like this when health care is not available to many people who really deserve it,” he said.

Dr. Backus worked for the Peace Corps as a volunteer and program director in Brazil during the 1960s, and has continued to assist the people of that country by returning each year to volunteer as a physician at a clinic in the Amazon. He is also vice president of the board of the Amazon Africa AID Organization, which supports health care and education in the Brazilian Amazon and in Portuguese-speaking Africa.

Dr. Backus received his medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington in 1976, and did his residency in family practice there from 1978 to 1980. He also did an internship and residency at hospitals in South Australia in 1976 and 1977. Dr. Backus has been a fellow in the American Academy of Family Practice since 1981, and is the founder and editor of the Vermont chapter’s family practice newsletter.

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