I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, completed medical training at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, my residency at Rutgers Health/Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey, and have lived in Florida for 35 years since moving here after my residency. I am an empty-nester, happily married father of four adult children (two girls, two boys) and three grandsons, all of whom live in New York or Los Angeles. 

Spirit of Small-Town Care
My inspiration for medicine was fostered by the family doctor in the small town where I grew up. He was the doctor who made house calls, and he was very dedicated to his craft and his patients. His warmth, kindness and academic commitment really inspired me to become a doctor and to emulate those kind of personal relationships and caring experiences with my patients.

I am a concierge medicine physician in a group practice, and I pursued concierge medicine as I progressed during my medical training because I wanted to re-create that small-town, family-doctor atmosphere. My medical training in New York City felt very formal, with doctors in white lab coats and suits that created significant personal space between doctors and patients—an experience that was contrary to what I’d grown up with. Here, we want patients to be part of our family. We want provider-patient relationships that are more comfortable, and that help make patients feel more open and honest with us. As a result, we can provide better care to them.

As a concierge medicine physician, I have the ability to spend more time with patients, get closer to them and enable them to get closer to me. We don’t have an answering service or an office answering system with prompts. When you call me or the team, you’re always going to get in touch with someone that you know and who knows you. It’s a great opportunity to take care of people at a much higher, much more personal level.

I golf, play tennis, bike and swim. I love to cook, and when the kids were younger, I cooked dinner pretty much every night from a countertop binder where I kept all my recipes. Every day when the kids came home, I’d hear the door slam and the kids would ask in unison, Dad, What’s For Dinner?Eventually, I thought the binder was big enough to publish a cookbook by that same title so the kids would always have some of our favorite family recipes and my mother’s favorite recipes on hand. (The book is now out of print). 

I’m also passionate about travel. I love Italy because of my Italian roots, the people, the culture and the food, and the most unique place that surprised me was Japan. I really enjoyed the warm, friendly Japanese culture.

Philosophy on Medicine
Physicians join this profession because they love caring for people and they love learning are very good doctors. You have to be in medicine because you love medicine. You can’t be a doctor because you’re looking to make a living. You have to love caring for patients and the gratitude you receive from that. If you have that commitment and mindset, you’ll be a very successful practitioner, and if that’s your motivation, you’ll do great and never regret what you’re doing.