Mark P. Freeman, MD, likes to take the 10,000-foot view and then dive deep into the cracks and crevices … both at work and for fun.
Specializing in diagnostic and interventional radiology, Freeman is in practice with Radiology Alliance and also serves as the medical director of Diagnostic Imaging at TriStar Summit Medical Center. His areas of special interests and expertise include neuroradiology, MRI and angio/interventional radiology.
The Memphis native is also an avid mountain climber and hiker. Freeman is the youngest of four boy, and he attributes his sense of adventure, strong work ethic and desire to explore to his amazing mother who retired at the age of 100 and is still driving at 103.
After high school, Freeman headed east to Nashville and received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Vanderbilt University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He then returned home to Memphis to continue his education at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine. After graduating from med school in 1982, Freeman completed a diagnostic radiology residency at the Medical College of Virginia, where he served as chief resident of Radiology from 1985-1986. Following board certification, Freeman performed a neuroradiology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and earned a Certificate of Added Qualifications in the subspecialty from the American Board of Radiology in 1995.
He was named to his current role at TriStar Summit in 2011 and also has staff affiliation for a number of other hospitals in Middle Tennessee, including facilities in Ashland City, Dickson, Erin, Linden, Smyrna and Nashville, as well as Bowling Green, Ky.
On May 15, Freeman will be inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Radiology (FACR) at a formal convocation ceremony during the annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “I’m looking forward to this distinction,” Freeman commented, “I am very grateful to be able to do what I do.”
One of the highest honors bestowed by the ACR, only about 10 percent of the membership ever achieves this distinction. Of course, Freeman is used to scaling the mountains most never attempt … literally. It is only fitting that he spends much of his workday at Summit since that’s where he likes to spend his off hours, as well.
When he isn’t practicing, Freeman relishes hiking and mountain climbing and recently reached the summit of a 14,000-foot mountain in Colorado with his family. Prior to setting off to climb, Freeman said his children are quick to remind him of what he has always told them when they study an ascent, “That ain’t no hill for a stepper!”
He is equally fascinated with going in the other direction, down into the Slot Canyons that pockmark the Southwestern landscape with ethereal light beams, golden hues and corkscrewing rock walls that seem to defy gravity.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that with his love of structures spanning the centuries – and a mother who has eclipsed the 100-year mark – that Freeman also enjoys studying genealogy to trace the history of his family. He said he has interviewed members of generations of his family, visited cemeteries across the country, and studied aging family records and Bibles. Freeman also noted he appreciates that the study of family histories has become much easier with the support of modern DNA discoveries. However, he said he worries that the Internet often offers up suspicious or inaccurate entries that should not be taken at face value.
Freeman enjoys traveling to far-flung places with his wife, a former cardiac nurse who has found a second career building spec houses. They especially enjoyed a recent river cruise along the Danube and are currently planning more visits abroad. And he’ll certainly be heading back to those awe-inspiring depths and heights of those luminous canyons and majestic mountains a few more times.
Whether this adventurous physician is scaling mountains, sliding into caverns or unraveling the mysteries of the human body, there is always something new to explore.
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