Dr. Michael Scott Gallagher, a St. Agnes HealthCare physician who specialized in internal medicine, died Monday of a heart attack at Howard County General Hospital. He was 41 and lived in the Owen Brown section of Columbia.

Friends said Dr. Gallagher was jogging and collapsed while running a 6-mile course.

Born in Palo Alto, Calif., and raised in Bethesda, he earned a degree in biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1993 and did his residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center in downtown Baltimore.

He treated patients with cancer, pneumonia, diabetes and heart disease, among other conditions, at St. Agnes HealthCare in Southwest Baltimore. He had been medical director of its hospitalist program, in which a specific doctor is assigned to work with each patient admitted to the hospital.

"Before the concept of hospitalist was a popular idea, he built it into an important part of St. Agnes," said Dr. George Hoke, his medical partner and a friend of many years. "Mike was an interesting contrast in that most people would say he was mellow and laid back. On the exterior he was -- I never saw him yell or lose his temper. You couldn't rush Mike.

"Yet he worked so hard and was so driven to make this thing work. His mind was always one step ahead, thinking of how we can do better. He had a collection of patients who were so loyal they would refuse care from other doctors," Dr. Hoke said.

His colleagues said Dr. Gallagher often devoted many hours to discussing medical conditions with his patients, their spouses and children.

"Michael was a highly intelligent, skilled physician, but more importantly, he was kind-hearted and got actively involved with patients and their families," said Dr. Steve B. Lowenthal, St. Agnes' chief medical officer. "He was so dedicated. It is a huge loss for the medical community here."

Family members recalled Dr. Gallagher's many talents and interests -- as well as his devotion to his family.

"He was a Renaissance man. He designed and built furniture -- and he painted as well," said his mother, Jean Gallagher Schoen of Silver Spring. "He played piano well enough to be accepted as a music major at Maryland, even though he did not go into that. He played guitar as well. He almost had a master's degree in computer science before he changed to medicine. He wanted to be of service, to do more, to work with people."

Dr. Gallagher enjoyed outdoor sports. He had completed a Marine Marathon in Washington and the Big Sur Marathon in California and enjoyed windsurfing, kayaking and in-line skating.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, 10431 Twin Rivers Road, Columbia.

Survivors include his wife, Lynn Alice Robeson, an attorney; two sons, Ian Marcus Gallagher, 7, and Nicholas Duncan Gallagher, 5; his father, Dr. Robert Edward Gallagher of New York; his brother, John Nicholas Gallagher of Alexandria, Va.; and a sister, Nora Kathleen Gallagher of Rockville.