Physician Profile: Dr. Jay Tomeo, M.D.
of CPC-Central
Medical school was always in the long-range plan for Dr. Jay
Tomeo, but when he graduated in 1978 from Loyola Marymount University in Los
Angeles, California, with a degree in science, he took a detour South.
Instead of heading straight for medical school, he was recruited by nuns in
Mexico to teach science at a girls’ boarding school. Thinking this offer
might be a interesting departure from his California upbringing, he accepted
the challenge and embarked on a journey that would become a culturally
enriching and treasured experience.
Located approximately one hour southeast of Mexico City in Cuerna Vaca, the
school for sixth- to twelfth-grade girls was staffed primarily by the nuns
and was housed in an imposing structure that had served as a fort during the
revolution. Although Jay learned to speak quite a bit of Spanish during his
year and a half there, he was allowed to teach in English, as most of his
students were bilingual or multilingual. Some were even fluent enough and
had a broad enough cultural background to serve as diplomatic translators.
Young Jay lived off campus with a Mexican family who had a large home. Every
night at dinner, there were different faces around the table. “The house was
close to a language school attended by British diplomats, scientists from
Sweden, and others,” he recalls. There was a medical school nearby as well,
so medical students also frequented the home. This diversity added an
international flair to his experience as a teacher in Mexico.
Jay grew up in Los Angeles with his parents, Maurice and Betty, two younger
brothers, Michael and Todd, and a sister, Gail. During what he describes as
a happy childhood, Jay says he was a bit of a bookworm and a loner but was
also athletic and competitive. He always enjoyed and was involved in sports:
football in high school, and later, handball and racquetball.
After college and his stint as a teacher, Jay enrolled in a graduate program
in genetics at California State University at Northridge, until he was
accepted in 1980 to Loyola University Medical School in Chicago. This school
was a natural fit for Jay since he had graduated from Loyola in California
and his mother was originally from Chicago. “I had visited there as a child,
and it was nice to have some family nearby,” he says.
As a new medical student, Jay had a keen interest in primary care, even
though it was at a time when there was a greater push toward other medical
specialties. This was particularly true at Loyola, which had a prominent
heart program. “Many students were urged to pursue other specialties,” he
says.
Despite the trend, Jay stayed with his early area of interest. Following
graduation in 1985, he entered a family practice residency at McNeill
Hospital in Berwyn, a suburb of Chicago. “The philosophy at McNeill was that
there was great value in being an ‘all-round’ doctor,” he explains. While
that still holds true, he has seen family practice evolve to include a
gatekeeper function, wherein patients consult first with their family
physician, who provides referrals to other specialists when needed. “Our
place as family physicians is still evolving,” he says, especially with
respect to more coordinated care, which he believes is being enhanced by the
trend toward computerized medical charts and hospital records.
After completing his residency in 1988, Dr. Tomeo moonlighted at several
urgent care centers in and around Chicago while also attending a geriatric
fellowship at LaGrange Hospital. With geriatric fellowships just beginning
to emerge as a medical specialty, Dr. Tomeo followed his family practice
director to the new program at LaGrange Hospital. Dr. Tomeo participated in
the fellowship for a year and a half until he left for a group practice in
Florida. Dr. Tomeo explains: “Most fellowships ‘turn out’ teachers, and I
wanted to enter private practice.”
During that time, Dr. Tomeo married. Because he and his new wife, a nurse,
wanted to live near the beach, they explored employment opportunities in
Florida. They settled on a small hospital near Cape Coral, located two hours
south of Tampa along the Gulf coast. Jay was happy during his three years in
this community, in part because of its unique characteristics. Cape Coral is
a canal community that was created out of swampland. At the time Dr. Tomeo
lived there, it was populated predominantly by elderly residents and
fluctuated in size seasonally because of its popularity as a winter retreat.
“All of the doctors were from up North, 70 percent of the residents were on
Medicare, and the population almost doubled in winter,” he says. “It was an
interesting place to live and work.”
Dr. Tomeo’s next move was in 1993 to Augusta, where he went into private
practice affiliated with Doctors Hospital. He enjoyed the next five years in
private practice but found there are considerable drawbacks to working solo.
“I enjoyed private practice but there were too many administrative
headaches,” he says. “I started to recognize the benefits of being in a
group practice,” and so he began looking.
At the same time, the Center for Primary Care was growing and planning to
establish a presence at Doctors Hospital. Dr. Paul Fischer approached Dr.
Tomeo in 1998 about joining his growing practice group. He also recruited
Drs. Phillip and Denise Kennedy, fresh out of the Medical College of
Georgia. And thus, the third office of CPC was established at its present
location at the medical office complex adjacent to the hospital. “Everything
worked out perfectly,” he says. Since joining the staff of the Center for
Primary Care, Dr. Tomeo has grown his practice and expanded his role as a
leader in the medical community. He was recently elected chairman of the
Department of Family Medicine at Doctors Hospital.
As for his personal pursuits, Dr. Tomeo is a rocket fan. His interest in
rockets began with building models, but the hobby has evolved to include
building and launching functioning rockets. Most recently, he was able to
hobnob with others who share his interest at the National Rocket Shoot in
Orangeburg, SC, held over the July 4th weekend.
Computers are perhaps Dr. Tomeo’s biggest interest away from work. He likes
to build them, play with local area networks, and find ways to improve voice
dictation and make programs run better and faster. As such, he has become
CPC’s computer guru. Dr. Tomeo’s computer know-how is one of the
contributions he feels he makes to CPC. “When it comes to technical
matters,” he says, “ I have good knowledge.”
Dr. Tomeo is proud of what he has accomplished, most notably following his
dreams and having done so on his own. The road so far has taken him in many
directions and given him enriching experiences that complement his work at
CPC. His current goals include being the best physician he can be. “I want
to be a good doctor and to do good work,” he says, and CPC is all the better
for his devotion to learning, growing, and serving others.
