Dr. Scott Kim, new chief medical officer at Harmony Healthcare Long Island, aims to connect with patients

Whether he was working with HIV patients in Uganda or East Los Angeles, Dr. Scott Kim said he learned the key to being an effective doctor was more than mastering the science of the medical profession.

“It’s understanding and connecting with your specific patient population,” said Kim, who recently took over as chief medical officer at Harmony Healthcare Long Island, the federally funded health program focused on underserved patients in Nassau County.

For Kim, that meant taking a crash-course in Spanish before working in East Los Angeles so he didn’t need an interpreter in the examination room. It’s a skill that also helps in his new role at Harmony Healthcare where several of his patients have recently arrived from El Salvador.

Kim will oversee health centers in Elmont, Freeport, Hempstead, Oceanside, Roosevelt and Westbury as well as facilities at Freeport High School, Roosevelt High School and Westbury High School.

Newsday spoke with Kim, who lives with his wife and two children in Dix Hills, about his approach to community health and the challenges faced by his patients.

Why did you decide to go into medicine?

I grew up in Maryland and my dad was a psychiatrist. He wanted me to consider being a doctor but definitely did not want me to follow in his footsteps and be a psychiatrist. He didn’t want me to suffer with the intensity and emotional burden of the work but ironically as a primary care provider I have worked with patients in very difficult circumstances and a lot of patients with severe mental illness. I don’t think helping patients with behavioral health is the specific job of mental health professionals anymore. It’s a big part of primary care.

My original goal was to be a missionary doctor in Africa. I had scientific interest in HIV and I thought it would open doors to really working with underserved populations in other parts of the world.

How did you end up working in Uganda?

While I was at Johns Hopkins, I had a chance to do a clinical rotation in Uganda. What I learned was that the Ugandan doctors were as good if not better at their work than any HIV doctors I have met in the U.S. And it was because they knew their patients better than the international doctors coming over from Europe, Canada and the U.S. That was an insight I have carried with me my whole life.

You had to learn to speak Spanish in order to work as director of a community HIV program in East Los Angeles. Why was that important?

I had been an infectious disease consultant in a hospital and I really missed the outpatient focused primary care work. There was an opportunity to join a community health center that needed an HIV director. Most of the patients were young and middle-aged gay Mexican Americans. Close to half could not speak English and about one-third were undocumented. I was told I would not make it if I did not learn Spanish. I took a two-week immersion course. Even when I was stumbling for words, my patients so appreciated the effort. They never stopped reminding me how important it was to them that I was willing to do it.

How can you win the trust of new patients who might be reluctant to seek out health care?

I saw three people and all had recently arrived from El Salvador. None of them knew what to expect from us and were worried about how they would pay. I explained this is a safe place and you will get all the health care you need regardless of if you can pay for it. They are not used to that. Seeing that “wow” reaction really gives us a lot of joy. That first impression is so important on so many levels.

You have just started to treat patients in Nassau County. What kind of health issues are you seeing?

The other day I saw three people who had all recently arrived from El Salvador. And all three had varying levels of obesity …. I talked to them about their parents and grandparents and invariably someone’s got diabetes, someone’s got hypertension, someone’s gone into the hospital for what might have been a heart attack. They don’t know the details but they know the trajectory is bad.

I speak to them about eating fruits, vegetables and fiber. One patient said their diet was almost all processed food. One said they were getting exercise at work as a laborer. I explained that while the labor is very intense it doesn’t really function as exercise that helps their cardiovascular system. You’d be surprised how impactful a conversation like that can be. You can follow a different path to your older years. It’s all up to you.

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.