Robert L. Smith, MD, FAAFP

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Board certified in family medicine, Robert L. Smith, M.D., FAAFP brings a range of expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in pediatric and adult patients to the Bluffton primary care practice. He will begin seeing patients at the practice later this month.

Dr. Smith comes to the Lowcountry from Finger Lakes Family Care in Canandaigua, N.Y., a practice which he founded in 2006 in part to enhance patient care through the use of innovations in e-health. The Finger Lakes’ first medical home, the practice earned National Committee for Quality Assessment (NCQA) Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home status under his leadership.

Chief of outpatient medicine at FF Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua and co-founder of Updox, a medical communication platform, Dr. Smith is broadly experienced in the use of telemedicine, having greatly enhanced his patients’ access to care over the course of his career and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He counts among his clinical interests acute and urgent care, sports medicine, preventive care, diabetes management and office-based dermatology procedures.

Dr. Smith, raised in Rochester, N.Y., graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Health and Sports Science from Wake Forest University.  After a brief career as a PGA assistant golf professional in Western New York, Florida and Arizona, he returned to academics for a Master of Science in Clinical Chemistry from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Doctor of Medicine from the Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y., remaining in Syracuse to complete a residency in Family Medicine at St. Joseph’s Health.

Dr. Smith credits the time he spent with team physicians and trainers during his undergraduate years as  the Wake Forest Men’s Basketball team student manager with sparking his interest in medicine.