About the Founder
William A. Cooper,
MD, MBA
Board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon. U.S. Army veteran, retired colonel. Founding Medical Director of a nationally ranked cardiac program. Independent locum physician. Physician educator.
William A. Cooper, MD, MBA
Founder & Program Director
30 Years at the Intersection of Surgery and Service
Dr. William A. Cooper, MD, MBA, is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon with more than 30 years of experience caring for patients with complex heart disease. A proud U.S. Army veteran and retired colonel, he gave 35 years of service — including four deployments to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He built one of the nation's top heart programs as founding Medical Director at WellStar Health System, earning elite 3-star ratings from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, top-tier national rankings, and Joint Commission Gold Seal honors. He has also served as Associate Professor of Surgery at Emory University.
Today, Dr. Cooper practices as an independent locum tenens cardiothoracic surgeon, working primarily through PRIME Health Professionals Network — helping hospitals across the United States maintain advanced cardiac surgical services while building a sustainable, independent career model for himself and for the clinicians he mentors.
The Beyond Locums Series — and Locum Tenens Academy — grew directly from that transition. Every framework, checklist, clause, and strategy in the curriculum reflects what Dr. Cooper actually did, actually negotiated, and actually learned, often by paying tuition to a system that provided no operational manual.
"I learned about fair market value the same way most physicians do — by being told, several years into my career, that something I had been doing for years required a written valuation opinion or it was a potential federal crime."
— Dr. Cooper, Preface to The FMV Triangle
Credentials & Recognition
STS 3-Star Rating
Society of Thoracic Surgeons elite designation — awarded to the top tier of cardiac surgery programs nationally for clinical outcomes.
Joint Commission Gold Seal
Awarded to programs meeting the highest standards of quality and patient safety — earned under Dr. Cooper's medical directorship at WellStar.
Emory University Faculty
Associate Professor of Surgery — bringing academic depth and teaching experience to clinical and educational work.
U.S. Army · Colonel (Ret.)
35 years of service including four combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan — leadership, operational discipline, and mission clarity.
Why He Built This
The System Provides
No Manual. So He Wrote One.
The Beyond Locums Series began as the book Dr. Cooper wished had existed before his first compliance briefing, his first locum contract, and his first multi-state licensing application. It became a full curriculum for every physician navigating the same transition.
Volume I — The Locums Heart Surgeon
The founding text. Written from inside a real cardiothoracic transition — with the operational specificity that makes a specific case a general framework any clinician can follow.
Volume II — The FMV Triangle
The regulatory environment every independent physician operates inside. FMV, Stark, AKS, medical directorships, call coverage — written by a working surgeon in plain language.
Volumes III & IV
How the staffing pipeline actually works. How to prepare for your first — or next — assignment. The Locums Brief, agency decoding, credentialing, licensing, and the full LTA toolkit.
What We Stand For
The LTA Philosophy
Physician First
The regulatory framework around physician compensation was built on assumptions about medical practice that are increasingly difficult to defend. We teach physicians to work within the current framework competently — and to advocate for its modernization.
Radical Transparency
Agencies optimize for engagement attraction, not systemic accuracy. Hospitals draft contracts from language that dilutes physician protections. We tell you what the other parties at the table are not going to volunteer.
Practical Over Theoretical
Every checklist, clause template, and framework in the Beyond Locums curriculum is drawn from real contracts, real negotiations, and real outcomes — not academic conjecture.
Operational Literacy
The clinician who understands what the system was built to do — and what it was not built to do — navigates it more effectively than the clinician who treats it as inexplicable or unfair.
Ready to Build
Your Independent Practice?
Schedule a free consultation to discuss your specialty, your goals, and which LTA program or Beyond Locums volume is the right starting point for where you are right now.