Elizabeth A. Lawson, MD, FACS
Board Certified General Surgeon in Johnson City, TN
Medical School
University of Tennessee Center For the Health Sciences
January 1977 – June 1980
Internship & Residency
University of Tennessee Center For the Health Sciences, Dept of Surgery
June 1980 – July 1985
Board Certification
American Board of Surgery
December 16, 1986
Recertification
American Board of Surgery
December 1994
December 2006
Biography
Professional Background
Dr. Beth Lawson is a native of Johnson City who joined her father’s surgical practice in 1985 after completing her General Surgical training at the University of Tennessee. Before becoming a surgeon she received a Bachelor of Arts from Denison University and a Masters of Science from East Tennessee State University. The John Lawson Surgical Group was named to honor her father’s high standards of ethical, professional, and humanitarian treatment of surgical patients. She is known for the hours she spends counseling patients and families concerning surgical options. One of her patients stated, “ She made me feel like I was her only patient.” Beth finds being a doctor a privilege and honor to care for the residents of Upper East Tennessee.
Clinical Interests
For the first 10 years of her practice, Dr. Lawson practiced all forms of General Surgery. In 1995, Dr. Lawson limited her practice to the care and treatment of Benign and Malignant Diseases of the Breast. Breast diseases and their treatment has always been her passion and she particularly wants to offer care commensurate with larger institutions so that local patients do not have to travel to receive the highest level of breast care. She was the first surgeon in the area to train and obtain privileges to perform Stereotactic (minimally invasive) Breast Biopsy and the first surgeon to offer office-based ultrasound for diagnosis, biopsy, and cyst aspiration. She and Dr. Cutshall are two of the less than 200 surgeons in the USA to receive certification in Breast Ultrasound by the American Society of Breast Surgeons. Mastectomy, lumpectomy, and sentinel node biopsy are standard procedures she performs weekly.
Certifications
Dr. Lawson is certified by the American Board of Surgery, The American Society of Breast Surgeons, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. She is an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Quillen College of Medicine.
Personal
Dr. Lawson lives in JC with her husband Dr. Larry Schmidt, a local gastroenterologist with Gastrointestinal Associates of Northeast Tennessee. They are the parents of two adopted children, Robyn, a senior at Duke University, and John, a sophomore at Savannah College of Art and Design. She is an active member of Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church where she assists with 3rd grade Sunday School and Youth Choir. Her free-time activities include sewing, reading, swimming, cooking, and travel.