Dr. James A. Modlinger, MD

Dr Modlinger is the best & most caring Doctor we've ever had. He is through & has professional contacts & will personally make a call to get you seen. Your appointments might take longer than seeing other Dr's because he gives treats you as a family member. My husband always complained that Dr's just don't care these days. Than we met Dr Modlinger.. We are so grateful for him & his amazing staff. Debbie, Gabriel & Trine are always professional, caring, kind & attentive.

I have never met a more caring and driven Doctor in my life. I was referred to Dr. Modlinger by my primary Dr. I made my first appointment and sat in the waiting room for nearly 2 hours. Yes, it was off putting for sure. What kept me there was him coming out, not once but twice to let me know he was with a husband and wife & that he would give me the same attention Once I got called back.. I was immediately knew he was the real deal. I had gone to a cardiologist already and this was apples to oranges as far as work ups. He spent over 2 hours with me! I was a bit of a complicated story so the fact he worked so hard in trying to understand was commendable. He put me in a Preventice heart monitor to record my heart. He has spent time personally calling the company to ask questions that were not on the report. The amount of time and energy he has spent on me has not been lost upon me. I am truly grateful to have a Doctor that I feel, truly cares and invests in his patients. He is such a gem of a Doctor!

I had the same experience as Deborah Hubbert, above. He 'fired' me, after 2 1/2 years of caring for me, because I went to see the very cardiologist surgeon that he chose to put in a device in my heart. It was sad, as we had built quite a relationship, but it is highly unreasonable for a doctor to expect that he should be your sole medical expert. What's more, I struggled with the 3-5 hour average visit, and the lack of privacy in his offices. I will miss him. But I believe it's all for the best.

This "doctor" should not have a license to practice medicine. He kept me in his office for 5 hours on my initial visit and refused to see me when I came back for my follow up appointment without any explanation. I was told that my test results would be mailed to me. After several weeks of waiting, I finally went to his office in person and his staff told me "They might not be able to get to it for a long time because they were so busy (dripping with sarcasm)." I told them it was illegal to withhold medical records. Totally one of the most shocking and outrageous experiences I have ever had anywhere, let alone a doctor who is supposed to help people and "do no harm."

I find it difficult to review doctors. If they're doing a good job you probably aren't going to see them that often. Doctors, particularly specialists, are also notoriously idiosyncratic, their actions and methods will appeal to some and not to others. Dr. Modlinger loves to tell long, circuitous stories and leans heavily on metaphoric medical explanations, but when you leave his office you'll know where you stand. He might call you - out of the blue - on a Sunday morning to see how you're doing and wax philosophically about his youth at Stuyvesant high school. Now here's the stuff you probably want to know. Dr. Modlinger practices an 'old school' type of medicine. He takes a whole body approach as opposed to a compartmentalized approach to diagnostics and treatment. He was educated at the finest east coast schools, did his residencies at some of the best medical centers in the country and has made considerable contributions to our modern understanding of cardiology. This isn't my opinion, its the opinion of multiple physicians I've spoken to over the few years I've known him. You'll be hard pressed to find a cardiologist anywhere with a broader and deeper knowledge base and yet he still considers himself a student - as should we all. Finally, here's the Oscar moment, probably something I shouldnt share publicly, but I'm old enough now (50) to N.G.A.S. Late last year, following some strenuous work, I developed what I thought was either a pulled muscle or heartburn. Went to Urgent Care, lab work, films were all normal, but my EKG was slightly abnormal though it didnt raise concerns because my symptoms had disappeared. They suggested I follow up with my cardiologist - so I did. Echocardiogram was normal, lab work was normal - everything was normal - and I was otherwise asymptomatic and in generally excellent health. I was in his office a couple days later for a follow up when some additional lab results came in. On a hunch, working with limited and imperfect information, he put me in the front seat of his car, his assistant Gabriel in the back, and drove straight to Los Robles ER. A few hours later, in the cath lab, a blockage was found in a cardiac artery that only 15% of the general population even has. My primary cardiac arteries were 'non-remarkable' and my blood pressure never once went above 115 / 75, and hasn't since. I never had a single typical symptom of a cardiac problem, yet his hunch caught this blockage within hours of it forming, preventing any lasting or meaningful muscle damage. Raise your hand if you think your cardiologist would do that? So while his methods, practices and idiosyncrasies can frustrate from time to time, they're more than worth the price of admission.