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About Me

As your physician, I am interested in attending to your health care needs and concerns. I will listen to you and together we will determine how best to help you. I initially joined Kaiser Permanente as a Family Medicine Physician in 2005. Previously, I enjoyed private practice in Santa Rosa from 1981 to 2005. I explored the idea of continuing to practice medicine in Kaiser Permanente's comprehensive, coordinated preventive care health system, and was fortunate to be invited to join. In 2007, I increased my hospital inpatient care duties, and in 2009, began working full time as a Hospital Based Specialist.

I grew up in Chicago, Illinois and went to Brown University in Providence, R.I., where I studied electrical and biomedical engineering. There I learned to fly and became a glider flight instructor and tow pilot for the Brown University Soaring Club. I was able to continue flying on weekends in the Mojave Desert, while studying medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. My internship was at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco, where I met my future wife. Subsequently, I worked a short time in (of all places) Santa Rosa, New Mexico, in the National Health Service Corps, but returned to Northern California for a Family Practice Residency at Community Hospital in Santa Rosa, California. After residency, I spent three years, again for the National Health Service Corps, in Geyserville, California, at Alliance Medical Center and was fortunate to improve my Spanish while working there.

My wife, Valerie, is a Marriage Family Therapist and has worked in hospice care for many years. Our son graduated in environmental studies in college at Boulder, Colorado. He worked on salmon restoration on the Klamath River, and is now teaching Non-Violent Communitation in New Mexico. Our daughter crewed on the sailing team in college in Boston, and graduated in international relations. She now works for a global public relations firm in Manhattan.

In an effort to stay fit, and more importantly, to have fun, I've played ice hockey at Snoopy's Ice Arena for the past 21 years. When the kids were in school, I enjoyed coaching my daughter in soccer and my son in ice hockey.

I try to play in the Snoopy World Senior Ice Hockey tournament each July, and at the Playmaker's Senior Ice Hockey tournament each spring in Victoria, BC, in Canada.

I enjoyed a long career as a family physician, caring for families, delivering babies, assisting at surgeries, and caring for my practice patients when they needed hospital care.

At this stage in the development of medical care delivery, I have come to value focusing on the inpatient, acute care hospitalization management of people, when ill enough to require and benefit from Kaiser Permanente's unique integrated care system. Working with specialists, nursing teams, therapists, and social workers; and using the electronic medical record and ordering system, we are able to provide accurate care in a personal manner, striving to achieve best results.

My Credentials

Medical school	University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Internship	United States Public Health Service Hospital, San Francisco, CA
Residency	Community Hospital, Santa Rosa, CA
Board certification	Family Medicine, American Board of Family Medicine

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