"As a Family Physician since 1980, my experience is broad and varied. While I no longer deliver babies, my love for children makes any pediatric visit a special part of my work day. I feel that my medical training in the Navy, including the 4 years in Pensacola as an instructor for developing physicians, helped equip me for the largest part of my job, which is education. I feel it is critical to involve patients, and their families, in the understanding and management of their health as well as their illness. This is especially important for my seniors, so that we can all work together to help maintain their independence while maximizing safety. My office practice provides me the opportunity to care for patients with a wide variety of conditions, especially diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol issues, arthritis, and heart conditions. It is a particular goal of mine to try to keep patients out of the hospital, as I feel that a lot of good things happen in hospitals, but there are certainly risks as well. The better we can do, together to maximize health, the better service I feel I am providing."