2023 Health Care Champions Physician: Dr. Stephen R. Adams

Dr. Stephen R. Adams began his medical journey as a faculty member at the Cox Family Medicine Residency, where he discovered a passion for both teaching and helping underserved populations.

“As a very new physician, I was trying to find my place in medicine, and I realized very quickly that I very much enjoyed being a teacher,” Adams says. “Through my work teaching resident physicians, I was one of the leaders on faculty to teach about underserved populations and try to inspire other physicians to also work with those populations.”

Adams engaged his students to also integrate social awareness into their practices.

“We worked to get experiences for residents that would help their understanding of the struggles of underserved people, such as volunteering at free clinics, food banks or homeless shelters,” he says.

After leaving his teaching role at CoxHealth, Adams moved to Cox’s urgent care as well as joining the AIDS Project of the Ozarks as medical director.

“Once I joined the board of directors for AIDS Project of the Ozarks in 2004, I was able to begin to have a real effect on the care of people living with HIV,” he says, noting he joined the staff four years later.

As APO’s medical director now for 15 years, Adams has helped transform the organization from a nonprofit serving about 200 people annually to earning the federally qualified health center look-alike status that now provides care to nearly 2,000 patients each year.

In that time, APO began providing prevention services for human immunodeficiency virus patients and pioneered same-day HIV testing and treatment, reaching a 94% viral suppression rate among patients – far above the national average of 66%, according to the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

Adams personally serves roughly 750 people living with HIV and says data from the state Department of Health show that about 1,200 people live with HIV throughout southwest Missouri.

“Providing a safe place for those patients to be cared for in a nonjudgmental and competent way and being a leader in care for those patients is my role in the overall picture of health care in the Ozarks,” he says.

Adams has also introduced innovative care for HIV patients, including treatment for hepatitis C co-infection, positioning APO, he says, as the only provider of such care in the region.

“My professional motivation is very simple: to create a health care setting that is inclusive of LGBTQ persons and those (people living with HIV), providing outstanding care, and to help educate other providers in that same pursuit,” he says.

Adams also is an active member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of HIV Medicine. His civic work involves contributions to Missouri State University’s Rare Books Endowment at Meyer Library and its Tent Theatre, as well as the Springfield Black Tie, an annual gala supporting the LGBTQ+ community.