Today
Dr. Patel is a family physician at Atrium Health Primary Care One Health Family Medicine in Charlotte, and he also teaches as an Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Charlotte campus of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In addition, Dr. Patel serves as the NCAFP Workforce Committee Chair.
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“Dr. Deepak Gelot and Dr. Stephen Jones were both small-town doctors where I grew up in Cleveland County,” Dr. Patel says. “At one point, they both took care of me. They were doing cradle-to-grave care and fulfilling what I now think Family Medicine should look like. As role models, they were key to me choosing the specialty.”
Dr. Patel grew up near Shelby, and when he attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) as an undergraduate, he kept close ties there by learning under Dr. Gelot and Dr. Jones. “I shadowed them throughout college so I could see if medicine was what I wanted to do,” Dr. Patel says. “I saw them do a lot of good work improving the lives of people in their communities. So I figured Family Medicine could be a good fit, because it provided awesome care to everybody.”
When Dr. Patel enrolled at the UNC School of Medicine, he benefitted from more influences that exposed him to Family Medicine. “When I was there, they emphasized primary care in our first and second years,” he says. This emphasis included “community weeks” where UNC medical students trained under volunteer preceptors. Dr. Patel worked at the Siler City Community Health Center, where he encountered more reasons to like Family Medicine. “We were managing every possible condition there,” Dr. Patel says. “That breadth of knowledge and comfort with complicated conditions spurred me to choose this career.”
Dr. Patel later matched into the Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency in Charlotte. But during the match process, he encountered his favorite family physician: his future wife, family physician (and NCAFP member) Dr. Pulak Patel. They met while they were interviewing at residencies in Georgetown. “We both ended up matching in Charlotte instead,” Dr. Patel says, “and we started dating a year after that.”
Having Family Medicine in common has been great for them both, Dr. Patel says: “Having her as a partner in this endeavor keeps me motivated. She’s a huge part of my career.”
He returned to Shelby to practice rural Family Medicine before he returned to the Carolinas Medical Center residency, where he became a clinical faculty member. By 2019, Dr. Patel had become the clerkship director for third-year medical students at UNC. In 2021, he began teaching at the Charlotte campus of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “We have a lot of wonderful students who eventually choose Family Medicine,” he says. “Teaching them has always been something I’m passionate about.”
He first attended the NCAFP’s Winter Meeting in 2013 but didn’t become involved in any service until he met past NCAFP president Dr. Thomas White and Exec. VP and CEO Greg Griggs during a 2015 advocacy conference in Washington, DC. Dr. Patel was about to begin practicing as a new family physician, and meeting these NCAFP leaders impacted his future plans: “It was a great experience to see how the Academy advocates for family physicians in North Carolina,” he says. “It was a really, really incredible experience.”
He began attending more NCAFP events and today serves as the chair for the Workforce Committee and as a member of the NCAFP Board, where he and the other physician members work to increase and equip future family physicians in North Carolina. Dr. Patel understands that they are necessary to our state’s health care access and quality: “If a public health system has a lot of family physicians, its cost are cheaper and its patients are healthier,” he says.
The committee’s work also suits Dr. Patel, because he knows firsthand the best reasons to become a family doctor here: “North Carolina is the best state for practicing Family Medicine,” he says. “Your work-life balance can happen, and the compensation is good. It’s very manageable. More preceptors should be telling their medical student, ‘Hey, this is not a bad career. You’re going to be impactful for your patients.’”
When he can, Dr. Patel also recommends a different, more lighthearted reason to choose Family Medicine, based on his experience: “You never know if you’re going to meet your future spouse!”
