Two residency program graduates to remain with Phoebe primary care practice

ALBANY – The path of two Albany physicians took them on a long journey to southwest Georgia, one from California and the other from Nigeria, Africa, with stops along the way for both.

And after three years in the Phoebe Family Medicine Residency Program, Drs. Uchechi Aguwa and Shivan Patel are staying in the area with the Phoebe family. A third member of the recently graduated class of seven residents, Dr. Xavier Capalla, also is remaining in southwest Georgia and has accepted a position at Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton.

Aguwa and Patel will practice as primary care physicians, Aguwa at Primary Care at Meredyth in Albany, and Patel at Phoebe Worth Family Medicine in Sylvester.

Patel, who attended the St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, also has a background in public health. The Long Beach native has had stops in Chicago and New York and worked on the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials at Emory University in Atlanta.

“I applied for residency during COVID,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be in Georgia. I have a sister in Atlanta. I wanted to be close to them. Most of my family lives in North Carolina.

“(Albany) was within driving distance to family. What kept me here were several factors. The area, it feels more intimate. The biggest thing was the people I worked with, but the patients I worked with as well. Everybody’s been so wonderful. Just being out in the community, it’s a welcoming environment. Even though it’s a small area, I feel like there’s a good bit of diversity.”

During their time with Phoebe, the residents got a wide variety of medical experience, working rotations in the emergency room, intensive care and behavioral health as well as practicing family medicine.

“Family medicine is what I enjoy,” said Patel, who served as co-chief resident during his tenure. “There’s a lot to learn, which is the exciting part about family medicine. I just want to have the skills and get the experience in primary care. One of the primary reasons I switched from research and public health work was working in a free clinic. That just went a long way. The basic care, what I saw, that work was very profound. Face to face, that felt more rewarding to me.”

Like Patel, Aguwa said she enjoys working with patients and families, which gives her a chance to know the health histories of those she is treating.

After graduating from medical school at the University of Nigeria and practicing for three years there, she joined husband George in Minnesota, where he was attending pharmacy training at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

“Right after graduation he got a job in Albany, and we’ve been here ever since,” she said. “Albany has been good to us.”

After working the long hours of residency, Aguwa, the mother of three boys ages 10, 9 and 5, is taking a short break to spend time with her sons during the summer.

“It was a testament to having a good support system,” she said of her time as a resident. “It would have been impossible without my loving husband and my family. I have to take my rounds while raising my family. It’s made me a better person and a better physician as well.”

She said she also benefited from the rotations that included radiology, Ob/Gyn and an ophthalmology rotation.

“We rotate through the various specialties,” she said. “We have to pass through all the specialties and be exposed to all the conditions of the population of people. We were exposed to the outpatient as well as the inpatient side.”

Aguwa said what she likes about primary care is taking care of a wide variety of patients.

“For me, I love working with children as well as adults,” she said. “It gives me the flexibility of taking care of everybody, the young and the old. That’s the benefit of medicine, being able to cultivate long-lasting relationships with everybody in the families.

“What really stands out is basically every diagnosis is a unique story. To understand, you need to understand where they’re coming from to direct treatment of patients plus diagnose the root cause.”

Southwest Georgia is an area with high poverty, and that results in a large number of patients who have chronic conditions, including hypertension and diabetes.

Caring for multiple family members offers the opportunity to help prevent those conditions from developing in others in the family, Aguwa said.

“Treating other members of the family, you know family histories and try to limit complications,” she said.

The newly graduated resident said she is grateful for the training and opportunity of working in the area.

“Albany has really given me a lot, and this is really an opportunity to give back to this community that has given so much to me,” she said. “I’m looking forward to engaging with my patients.”

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