About Dr. Bates

Ramona L Bates, MD has been a solo plastic surgeon in Little Rock, AR since 1990. She began writing the blog, Suture for a Living, in May 2007 and has been an active participant in the medical blog community.

Dr Bates was born in Ft Leonard Wood, MO, but considers herself from Arkansas as she was raised there. She received a bachelor of arts degree in Physics from the University of Arkansas. She is now on their Industrial Advisory Committee for the microEP program.

She earned her medical degree at the UAMS in Little Rock, AR. Between her first and second years she worked as a research assistant for NASA at Moffett Fields, CA where she worked on a project studying the effects of zero gravity on the human body.

She did her Flexible Internship at Earl K Long Hospital in Baton Rouge, LA. She did three years of general surgery training at OVMC in Wheeling, WV then did a Head & Neck Fellowship at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburg, PA prior to going to Boston, MA to do her plastic surgery residency at Boston University Hospital. She then returned to Little Rock, AR to do a Hand Surgery Fellowship with the Arkansas Hand Surgery Clinic. Upon completing her training, she began her private practice as a solo physician.