In this web site, I have tried to set out some of my attitudes and philosophies of the practice of gynecology.   I have written several short articles about the types of surgery that I do and the reasons that these procedures may be necessary.  A detailed Curriculum Vitae is linked also.

I am sure that some people will object to the idea of a male gynecologist.  They would also be appalled if a woman were discouraged from entering any practice or profession because of her sex.  I happen to believe that I am a very good and a very compassionate gynecologist.  I am a man, but one whose wife is female and whose daughter also is female.  I might also point out that I was truly devoted to both my mother and grandmother, both of whom were female.   In short many of my closest friends and relations have been women.   I have known women ob/gyn's who were very sympathetic and I have known those who had the compassion and gentleness of a Parris Island drill instructor.  I do not believe that karyotype defines ability.

My first post graduate training was at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.  I was interested in trying to learn about general, or as we now call it, holistic medicine.   So, I then went to Asheville, NC to participate in the opening of the University of North Carolina's Family Practice Residency there.  I was in the first graduating class of the program.  Then we moved to Seattle Washington and joined the family practice department of Group Health of Puget Sound, one of the oldest of the HMO's.    While I was there, I found that I liked dealing with the medical and surgical problems of women more than most of the other parts of my practice and that I wanted to further my education.  My family and I moved back across the country and I joined the residency at the Medical College of Georgia in Obstetrics and Gynecology.  

I completed the program three years later and opened a solo practice in King's Mountain, NC.  This venture only lasted two years but I learned a lot about my own abilities and strengths in the isolation of small town practice.  I then joined the Kernodle Clinic, a multi-specialty group in Burlington  and stayed with them for about fifteen years.  I gave up the practice of obstetrics in January of 1998. In November of 1999, I left the Kernodle Clinic and opened my own practice in the Medical Arts Building next to the Alamance Regional Medical Center.  I am alone in the practice and devote myself to gynecology and urogynecology. 

Some have asked me if I wasted my time in studying Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Family Medicine, thus delaying my start in Gynecology. I don't think so. I don't see my practice as just "gynecology".   I feel that I have a general practice but that I have limited myself to treating only women.  I think that my early training years have given me a broader understanding of the medical, surgical, environmental, social and psychological problems that women may be experiencing.  I hope that my larger experience and training will give me a better chance of eliciting the concerns, correctly interpreting them, putting them in context and helping my patient to solve them. 

I specialize, surgically, in minimally invasive surgery, doing traditional gynecologic operations by laparoscopic methods, to cause less pain and morbidity and to return people to their lives sooner.   I am particularly interested in the problems of women with urinary incontinence and pelvic floor damage.  I have written papers on this that are linked to this page as "Urogynecology"  "Hysterectomy" and "Minimally Invasive Surgery".  I do cancer surgery and treat gynecological oncology patients in collaboration with the Alamance Cancer Centerand the gyn-oncologists at Bowman Gray .  I do general infertility evaluation but do not consider myself an expert in infertility surgery.

In my office practice, I spend much of my time doing "well woman" exams, keeping up with the progress my patients have made in their lives.   We share the daily joys and sorrows of our children, spouses and parents making their way through life. I use a fair amount of time discussing the effects of aging in the pre, peri and post menopausal woman.  I see many adolescent and pre-adolescent  women.  We try to make sense, together, out of the crazy clues our society gives them about how to grow up and how to deal with their emerging sexual identity. I try to help people make good decisions about the issues of relationships, lifestyle, habits, hormones and attitudes.  A large percentage of my patients (and everyone else's I suspect) are depressed.  I have a number of people that come in to work on depression each week.  I feel that I have a good relationship with several excellent psychologists in town and that we collaborate in working with women with psychological conditions. I treat most medical conditions that my patients present. Complicated problems or problems that I do not feel comfortable with are referred to the appropriate specialists in the area, but I like to feel that I am able to advise and guide my patients in their choices of specialists and procedures.   It is sometimes hard for a non-medical person to decide whether a chest complaint needs a cardiologist, a pulmonologist, a gastroenterologist or a surgeon.  In these times of specialists and sub-specialists women need someone that can help them get on the right track and make sure that their course of therapy isn't derailed.  I can explain the findings that the specialist may not and can help make sure no-one drops the ball.  

I think that I have achieved pretty much what I intended.  I have a holistic practice for women.   I can provide most of the medical, surgical, psychological or social help a woman needs or I can direct her to the closest place to get it.  I have good relationships with the tertiary center at University of North Carolina, where I am privileged to be an Ajunct Assistant Professor, and with other practitioners of many disciplines and specialties here in Burlington. If I cannot give someone the help that she needs, I can find someone competent who can and I can help her to understand what is going on at the same time. I do my best to look out for my patients.  A great physician, whom I was privileged to know, said "the secret of caring for the patient is Caring for the patient." I try to do my best every day.