I was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and came to Washington state with my parents at the age of eight months. Growing up in the Seattle area, I attended The University of Washington and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in medical microbiology and immunology in 1982. I spent the next year doing research for the University of Washington Department of Microbiology and then began medical school, also at the University of Washington. I received my Doctor of Medicine degree in 1987 and did my residency training at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle. In 1988 I passed the National Board of Medical Examiners licensing examination in the 84th percentile (the top sixteen percent of all doctors throughout the nation) and was subsequently licensed by the state of Washington to practice medicine.      I joined the army reserve during residency and in 1990 I was activated for Desert Storm with the 50th General Hospital out of Seattle. After extensive emergency and war trauma training at Madigan Hospital, Fort Lewis, Washington and Fort Sam Houston, Texas I was sent to Saudi Arabia. When I returned to Washington after the war I decided to move to Montana to practice rural family and emergency medicine. I began a practice in Ennis, Montana in 1991.  During my time in Montana  I acquired and operated two separate clinics in Ennis and neighboring Three Forks, supervised two local physician's assistants, was chief of the hospital medical staff and on the hospital board of directors, was director of the county health department and company physician for the local talc mine, was medical director of the county nursing home, and worked in two neighboring hospital emergency rooms on many weekends. I also taught rural medicine to medical students from the University of Washington and the National Health Service Corps, was on the board of scientific advisors for a Bozeman biotechnology company, and wrote a medical information column for the local newspaper.      In 1997 I decided to take a break from medicine and moved back to Seattle. After some time off I began to contemplate starting a new type of practice with a difference.   I wanted to leave behind all of the negative aspects of modern medicine that have been forced upon us all by the insurance companies, malpractice lawyers, and health care administrators.  I would not allow anyone to degrade the quality of the care I would deliver. My house call practice  was the eventual result of my thoughts on this matter and was literally several years in the planning stage when I opened for business in April of 2003.  It is an exciting practice for me and one that, I'm sure, will continue to evolve as new patient care needs and ideas come to light.