It is 10 o’clock on a Tuesday morning, and Dr. Delbert “Del” Chumley enters the examination room in a dark suit, starched white shirt and red tie. “Dress professionally” is a motto he lives by. After he spends his day seeing 35 to 40 patients, he will head to the gym. Chumley is the picture of health.

As he leans into his patient, asking her about her pain, it is easy to see why this San Antonio doctor is one of the most respected gastroenterologists in the country. Chumley is an award-winning doctor, an ambassador for the local medical community, a shrewd businessman and a man who is poised to become a national leader in organized medicine.

But to the patient, all that matters is that her physician is there to help with her ulcerative colitis, which is the inflammation in the lining of her large intestine, the cause of her diarrhea and abdominal pain. It is a condition that puts her even at a higher risk of developing colon cancer, the second highest cancer killer in America, so Chumley watches her closely. This is how Chumley approaches his practice and the larger struggle against a very preventable cancer: one patient at a time.

“It is important in this time of high-tech medicine to still keep that individual touch,” Chumley said later while sitting in his office with numerous framed local and national awards covering the wall to his left. His most recent honor is one of the highest tributes by the American College of Physicians – the Laureate Award of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians.

When he started a solo San Antonio practice in 1976, gastroenterology was a budding specialty. “Back then we had no idea cancer came from polyps,” he said, sadly.

Chumley has come a long way as a physician and as a businessman. Today, he is part of a thriving practice backed by 10 partners—set to grow to 11 in August-- who are board-certified gastroenterologists. The well-respected group has a long-standing reputation and presence on “the Hill,” the term the medical community often uses for the South Texas Medical Center. “I’m very happy to be associated with this practice,” Chumley said. “We have been lucky and blessed to have been able to bring together a group of gifted, talented and devoted physicians.”

Last year, he and his partners developed a new, state-of-the art clinic in the Stone Oak area, a part of town that many in the medical industry are beginning to refer to as “Med Center II” because of the explosion of new health facilities in the area, such as the new Methodist Hospital. The clinic, just off Sonterra Blvd. on Proton Road, is the result of careful study of the growing demands in the Stone Oak community. In the next five years, there is expected to be a 24-percent increase in the number of people living there who are at least 60 years of age.

The clinic is ultramodern: wireless and chartless. Patients in Stone Oak no longer need to visit the hospital for a colonoscopy. The clinic includes three full-time gastroenterologists on staff—Dr. Michael J. Guirl, Dr. Richard T. Shaffer and Dr. James F. Jackson. The soothing clinical environment reflects the underlying philosophy of the new facility: that having a colonoscopy does not have to be an unpleasant experience.

“The Stone Oak clinic is convenient—it has the latest and most sophisticated equipment for screening,” Chumley explained. “It was built with patient comfort and safety in mind.”

Chumley said they’ve been able to keep what he calls the “negatives” about healthcare out of their practice. “We’ve automated a lot of things but kept the delicate contact and personal touch alive and well,” he said.

Never is this touch more important than when it comes to fighting colon cancer. With March designated as National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, there is much to celebrate. For the first time in many years, a new study shows an overall decline in cancer-related deaths. There has been a five-percent decrease in colon cancer deaths alone, as a result of increased screening. “That’s in part due to the Katie Couric effect,” said Chumley, referring to CBS news anchor Katie Couric’s very public colonoscopy after her husband’s death from colon cancer. “We are winning the war. And more awareness means more lives saved.”

When doctors perform colonoscopies and find precancerous polyps, those polyps are removed, and the cancer is prevented. Colon cancer is 90-percent preventable because it develops from polyps, which are grape-like growths on the lining of the colon and rectum.

These amazing strides are happening even though only about half of people who should get screened are doing so. “Imagine what would happen if the other 50 percent of people got screened,” said Chumley. “The effect would be huge.” The American College of Gastroenterology recommends that all patients have a screening colonoscopy beginning at age 50; patients should get screened sooner if they have a family history of the disease.

“It takes a day from your routine to potentially save your life,” Chumley said. “Despite what many people may think, getting a colonoscopy is not uncomfortable.”

The biggest challenge, Chumley said, is getting people to admit they need to get screened. A new study shows there is still much work to be done. According to Reuters Health, Spanish researchers found that only 38 percent of relatives of people with colorectal cancer chose to get screened for the disease despite the fact that they were at higher risk, as well as the fact that they were offered free testing.

Despite what people think, colon cancer affects an equal number of men and women. And, according to the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation, African-Americans and Hispanics are often diagnosed at later, less curable stages of the disease.

These are the messages Chumley preaches to his patients every day, and soon he may have more opportunities to get the word out. While Chumley has always been very active in the San Antonio medical community (he is immediate past president of the Bexar County Medical Society and recently led a delegation to visit our sister medical society in Kumamoto, Japan), he is just beginning to make his mark on the national level. Chumley serves on the executive committee for the American College of Gastroenterology. Many in his field expect Chumley to assume the presidency in 2011. Such a high-profile assignment would make Chumley the face and name for gastroenterology across the country and would be yet another feather in the cap of San Antonio’s burgeoning medical industry.

But this Central Catholic High School graduate, former Aggie, husband and father of three said he’ll think more about that when the time comes. Right now, he’s got a patient to see.