ALAMOSA — Curiosity created the doctor. Climate brought her to Alamosa. Candace Sobel, M.D., joined SLV Regional Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Department on Aug. 1.

She began her career in medicine 20 years ago as a medical technologist. “I was working in the lab and along with the blood specimen would come a requisition and on that would be a diagnosis and I would want to know what the diagnosis meant,” Sobel said.

First, borrowing an internal medicine book, and then, buying one of her own, she decided to settle her curiosity once and for all. “Since I was looking stuff up and reading about it every night anyway, I decided I might as well go to medical school because I really wanted more patient contact,” she said.

Sobel attended the University of Kansas Medical School, where she also did her residency and then stayed on as faculty for ten years teaching medical students and residents to become primary care doctors.

Earlier this year, Sobel and her husband decided they’d had enough of the humid mid-western weather and they began looking for a climate more conducive to an active outdoor lifestyle.

Traveling Colorado’s scenic roadways led to chats with a recruiter which led to an interview at SLVRMC. “We liked it and the area and we thought the Valley was beautiful,” she said.

Sobel said she likes the feeling of community in the rural setting. “Where we lived before, you might wave at your neighbors, but it was like you hardly knew them. It is more a sense of community here,” she said.

The new internist also likes that the hospital is supportive of the doctors and interested in making the clinic setting work so that they can see their patients efficiently and take good care of them. Admittedly, there are challenges for a doctor coming from an academic medical center to a rural practice. “I am used to having every sub-specialty just down the hall,” she said. “I look forward to learning from my colleagues about practicing in this area and being more self-sufficient.”

Sobel says her goal is to be the best primary care doctor she can be. “One of the things I want to make sure of - besides patients getting their current issues addressed - that they’re getting their preventive screenings and interventions,” she said. “I like to think of being in a partnership with my patients to guide them in what is available and what is recommended and help them make a decision on what is best for them.”

Sobel is now accepting new patients over the age of 18.