Clemson University

01/06/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/06/2025 08:16

College of Science alumni spotlight: Dr. Phyllis MacGilvray

January 6, 2025January 3, 2025

Becoming a doctor was a natural fit for Dr. Phyllis MacGilvray.

"I have a curious mind and was always asking, 'Why?' I found science fascinating because it gave me an avenue to finding answers," she said. "I became interested in medicine at an early age, in kindergarten, because of the relationship with my family doctor.

"Medicine was just a natural fit for me."

In July, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (USC SOMG) named Dr. MacGilvray, a family medicine practitioner of over 20 years, its dean.

Financial reasons led her to begin her college career at a small South Carolina college, but she quickly decided to transfer to Clemson, a school that had accepted her when she applied in high school.

Looking for more rigor

"During my first semester, I quickly realized that my coursework was not harder than my high school courses, and it scared me. I did not feel like I would get what I needed to attend medical school, which was always my goal," Dr. MacGilvray said. "I immediately started applying to transfer to Clemson, specifically for the College of Science, knowing that a biochemistry major would help prepare me for the coursework that I read was most difficult for first-year medical school students."

She found out how rigorous Clemson was when she received a C in her first 100-level biochemistry class.

"That was the first C I had ever gotten in my life. I thought my world was ending, but that was a transformative course because it demonstrated that I could fail. I didn't actually fail the course, but it felt like failing to me. That was my first 'aha' moment of 'wow, I've got to put in some work.'"

Dr. MacGilvray put in the work and graduated from Clemson in 1996, becoming the first member of her family to earn a college degree.

A year in a lab

She applied to the Medical University of South Carolina, but like most medical school applicants, Dr. MacGilvray didn't get in on her first try. She moved to Charleston anyway and worked for a year in Westvaco's forest products laboratory doing biolistic transformation on loblolly pine trees to make them more hardy and disease-resistant.

"I wanted to move to Charleston to learn the community and see if it was where I wanted to live and stay for medical school," she said. "And it enabled me to do some bench research and get exposure in the biochem space. If I didn't get into medical school, I needed to know whether it was a career path I would like and enjoy. And I did enjoy it."

Dr. MacGilvray got into MUSC the following year and earned her doctor of medicine degree in 2002. She completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Vermont, followed by academic leadership positions at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune and at the University of Texas Health San Antonio.

She returned home to South Carolina in 2018 to take a position with Prisma Health-Upstate as vice chair for academic affairs in family medicine. She became the department chair in 2020, leading the development of two new graduate medical education programs, which tripled the number of family medicine residency positions at Prisma.

Dr. MacGilvray is serving as dean for a two-year term.

She is the first medical school dean in the country who is board-certified in lifestyle medicine, which focuses on using evidence-based lifestyle interventions to prevent, treat and reverse chronic diseases. USC SOMG is one of two medical schools in the country that are platinum-plus certified by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, meaning students receive over 100 hours of lifestyle education. About 30% of the school's students are Clemson graduates.

Educating patients holistically

"Learning from the very first day of medical school how to educate patients holistically is only going to improve the care of their patients down the line," Dr. MacGilvray said. "Back in medical school, I got less than 10 hours of nutrition education in my four years. That's typical of many doctors my age and older, and, unfortunately, typical of many medical schools right now."

Dr. MacGilvray said disease prevention is the goal of all primary care physicians.

"We've all heard our doctor say, 'Exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables.' But the lifestyle medicine program puts more structure around how doctors educate patients about habits that can help improve their health," she said. "Instead of telling a patient to exercise more, we write a prescription with frequency, intensity, time and type. And when I see you back, I will ask how that went, and we'll alter the plan."

Lifestyle medicine includes six pillars: nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, social connections and avoidance of risky substances.

Elevate lifestyle medicine

As dean, Dr. MacGilvray wants to elevate the medical school's lifestyle medicine mission. The director of Lifestyle Medicine Programs at SOMG is looking at creating a mobile teaching kitchen that would help teach the community how to cook healthy meals. Dr. MacGilvray also wants to improve wrap-around support to students, including optimizing mental health and academic coaching.

In addition, Dr. MacGilvray wants to bolster the school's research footprint. She's setting up an office of research and hopes to hire an associate dean for research early this year. She said she expects some additional research ties to Clemson and Prisma Health.

"We have a physician shortage in the nation, but South Carolina's shortage is one of the worst," Dr. MacGilvray said. "This is an opportunity for the Upstate to potentially produce doctors that want to stay here and go into our more rural areas to practice and see patients."

The school launched a Primary Care Accelerated Track program in July. Students in the PCAT program will complete their medical education at USC SOMG in three years and seamlessly transition into a three-year residency in one of the Prisma Health Family Medicine residency programs. Students get a full tuition scholarship. After residency, they enter a four-year commitment to provide primary care within the Prisma Health system, in communities across the Upstate.

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