ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- The phone rings and Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams answers. "Whoo-whoo!" he says instead of hello.
Is this the doctor Robin Williams portrays in the upcoming movie? "Yeh-yus," he exults."Patch Adams," the movie, is a fictionalized account of the medical school days of Patch Adams, the person.
A phone interview with Adams, 53, from his Arlington home reveals why Williams, famous for his manic ad-libs, was the natural choice to play the doctor. Adams doesn't answer questions so much as he trills, honks and snorts his replies.
Adams attended Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, where he studied from 1967 to 1971. MCV, part of Virginia Commonwealth University, is the birthplace of the zany bedside manner that inspired the movie.
"Feel the radical nature of what I am saying," Adams exhorted as he explained his philosophy that laughter is good medicine. Although he no longer treats patients, he's a believer in house calls, having fun and nurturing friendships.
He also likes to wear a red clown nose. In his book, "Gesundheit!," Adams said the schnoz perks up his patients and everyone else he meets.
On film and in life, Adams attacks the medical establishment with gusto. He travels the world, lecturing to medical students and health-care workers about the power of laughter and the perceived evils of the American medical system.
"Patient advocacy and consumerism were unheard of. We learned the politics of buck-passing and the gymnastics of cover-up when the inevitable mistakes were made," he wrote of his medical training in the book. "We learned of doctors who invested heavily in the companies that served their patients. We stood in the shadows that greed -- perhaps society's greatest ill -- casts over the field of medicine."
In 1974, Adams and a group of like-minded doctors began treating patients at a free clinic that more closely resembled a commune than a medical center.
They carried no malpractice insurance, and initial interviews with patients often took half a day. Adams said the doctors worked for "next-to-nothing" because they were thrilled by the informal environment.
"Twenty of us lived and worked together," he wrote. "We farmed, kept goats and explored play in many forms."
People didn't come just for medical care.
"Treatment of patients took place in the course of daily life as we took walks, did the dishes or played together," he wrote.
In the interview, Adams said the clinic was "the only silly hospital in history."
The American Association for Therapeutic Humor plans to honor Adams at its annual convention in January with the first Doug Fletcher Award, named for the former publisher of the Phoenix-based Journal of Nursing Jocularity. The honor recognizes Adams for nearly 30 years of making patients laugh.
Back in 1979, as some of his colleagues burned out on the "silly hospital," Adams created The Gesundheit! Institute, an organization formed with the goal of building a hospital on 300 acres he owns near Hillsboro, W.Va.
"I think this movie (which opens today) is going to build our hospital," he said of the possible donations the film may attract.
But he said he's also grateful the movie makes clear that practicing medicine isn't about money.
"I am honored that a message of generosity and service attached to my name will be going all over the world. It will inspire medical students and all kinds of people to lessen their burnout potential," Adams said.