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When staff at the Memphis Zoo called in radiologist Dr. George S. Flinn Jr. to begin ultrasound scans on their latest pregnant creature, it was clear this exam would be different.

In the first place, he understood that caring for one of the world’s rarest mammals through a highly anticipated pregnancy would be like taking part in history. But in the second place, unlike with his other zoo patients, there were no plans to put Ya Ya the panda under anesthesia while he worked on her.

“She’s a 300-pound panda,” Flinn said, recalling his initial doubts. “But the keepers are very good. They were able to interact with her to the point where she would just lay back and let me work.”

Although Ya Ya miscarried her first pregnancy in June at about 40 days into the 135-day gestation term, the month’s work of exams Flinn performed on her produced what the zoo believes are the earliest images of a panda pregnancy ever captured in the world.

“We had a weekly Wednesday meeting at the zoo for that month,” he said. “I was so pleased to be part of that team, and whenever they need something there, I’m ready.”

Although the occasional panda, ape or elephant adds some variety to his practice — and wins wide-eyed questions from his grandchildren — Flinn’s everyday work on human patients keeps him busy, along with public service, business interests and musical hobbies.

In a given day, his ultrasound practice may take him to a half-dozen different offices from one end of Memphis to the other.

“I just start out wherever an invasive procedure or needle biopsy is being done that morning,” he said. “Then I’ll come into the office and read results, and go back out to take care of whatever is scheduled that day.”

Flinn performs his primary procedures at his main office downtown at Methodist University Hospital. He also has offices at other Methodist hospitals in Southaven, Whitehaven, Bartlett, Germantown, and in East Memphis on Mt. Moriah. Each one is connected electronically to the others, enabling him to keep tabs on current cases wherever in the city he happens to be.

Implementing teleradiology into his practice was just the latest change in a field he’s seen evolve over the past four decades.

“I can almost say nothing I learned in my radiology residency is in use today,” he said. “We didn’t have CT, MRI, and we basically didn’t have ultrasound. Radiology is such a dynamic field that everything we use today we all learned as it came out over the years. It’s been a lot of fun trying to keep up with.”

Flinn, who grew up in Memphis, came to a career in diagnostic ultrasound through an unusual route — electrical engineering.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in that field from the University of Mississippi in 1965. But in his senior year, during a research project aimed at logging how much radiation was emitted from a television set, he interviewed several radiologists about how to measure radiation. He decided their work looked like fun.

He went on to pursue a medical degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, finishing in 1969. He completed an internship at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., and a radiology residency at Methodist Hospital in Memphis.

He spent two years in research for the U.S. Public Health Service at the National Institute of Health in Washington while serving as a commander in the U.S. Navy.

He then returned to open his private practice, The Flinn Clinic, back home in Memphis. With the Diagnostic Ultrasound Consultants practice he now shares with Dr. Nancy Ellis, based just about a block away from Central High School which he attended, he feels like life has brought him full-circle.

Flinn is licensed to practice in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. He received board certification from the American Board of Radiology, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the American Board of Nuclear Medicine and the American Academy of Thermology.

In the Memphis community, Flinn is active in the Memphis Medical Society and also serves as a District 1 representative on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. He was initially appointed to fill an unexpired term in 2004, but was elected to an additional four-year term in 2006.

“It takes a lot more time than I thought,” he said of the job. “But you just have to make time for those things that are important.”

Along those lines, Flinn enjoys spending time with his son, Memphis attorney Shea Flinn, and a 3-year-old grandson who bears his name. Flinn’s daughter, Joanna, lives in Washington and has two children as well.

Among his hobbies over the years: stunt-plane flying—although today he takes a safer route and lets Northwest do the flying, he said. More recently, he’s been taking a variety of musical lessons, including learning to play blues harmonica and trying out the harp.

He’s also practicing on the Hammond B-3 organ, which he purchased for the love of its sound — and then realized he had better learn how to play it. Today he can hammer out rock-and-roll tunes on the keys.

“I’m never going to be great at it,” he said of his musical ambitions. “But it’s fun to get into it.”

Meanwhile, his media company, Flinn Broadcasting Corp., keeps the music going across some 30 radio stations and four television stations in 13 states, from Georgia to Montana. Locally, his stations include Q-107.5 FM, Hot 107.1 FM, WHBQ Sports 56 AM and Radio Disney 1430 AM.




August 2007

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