‘Dr. G’ will see you now…online
Originally posted on TheSandPaper.net
He’s known locally as “Dr. G.” For 30 years, area families depended on Dr. Richard Goldstein for his diligence, medical teaching and commitment to pediatrics. He had a nurturing style with children and a rapport that comforted parents. Last year, at age 77, after having a knee replacement followed by a fractured second cervical vertebra and surgery, he felt it was time to step away from office practice.
“Those last few years I knew that I needed to leave as a full-time pediatrician. But I wanted to keep practicing,” he shared. “I wanted to be able to stay in touch with the local families I had seen for the last 15, 20 or 25 years.”
The timing, it turns out, couldn’t have been better as technology was ripe for “telemedicine.”
Today, wearing his white lab coat by a roaring fire in his living room, he can see kids, or even adults, via video on a smartphone, computer or tablet.
Goldstein is able to practice remotely because he simply has so much experience. Late in his college years at the University of Connecticut, he decided medicine was his calling. It was at the University of Miami med school that he discovered his love for pediatrics. It’s also where he started developing a social awareness that would become a recurring theme in his career.