Keith Golden, MD

My dad was a primary care physician in small-town Ohio, which gave me early exposure to medicine. I liked computer programming in the 1970s - the very early PC years - but found it too tedious to pursue as a career. I was only 15 when I realized medicine was my calling. \n I went through an accelerated Bachelor of Science/MD program at Kent State University and decided on surgery as a specialty because I've loved fixing things since I was young. I further chose urology since it offers a great mix of large, complex surgeries and simpler procedures, such as cystoscopies and vasectomies. \n I did my residency at what is now MedSTAR Georgetown-Washington Hospital Center. I also did a research year in kidney and pancreas transplants followed by a yearlong fellowship at The National Cancer Institute, where I provided immunotherapy to advanced renal carcinoma and melanoma patients. \n After that rewarding experience at the National Institutes of Health, I finished my four-year urology training and entered private practice in the Washington, D.C. area, where I remained for 25 years and performed countless minimally invasive procedures for prostate diseases. \n I served as chief of urology at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Virginia and chief of surgery at Prince William Hospital, also in Virginia, and was among Washingtonian Magazine's Top Doctors every year since 2004. \n Over the years, I have published a number of scholarly articles. I'm especially proud that my son - who's now an MD but was in college at the time - and I published a comparison study of cryotherapy versus radiation therapy for prostate cancer. \n With my dad and a sister in Raleigh, moving to North Carolina appealed to me. My job in Wilmington puts me much closer to them. I have two adult sons from my first marriage and am engaged to a Novant Health nurse practitioner. We live - somehow peacefully - with two kids, one grandmother, two cats, fish, a turtle and a gecko. \n I'm an avid golfer and also love nature, gardening and travel. Some friends and I have taken an international golf trip every year since 2015.

I've been enamored with medicine for as long as I can remember. My grandfather, for whom I was named, was a general practitioner in my hometown of Reidsville, North Carolina and took care of nearly the entire town. \n Within a few hours of my premature birth, my grandfather suspected I had pneumonia. He had me transferred to Moses Cone Hospital, where I spent three weeks in the ICU. A few weeks after I was discharged, I went into septic shock. Again, my grandfather recognized the signs. He coded me during the ambulance ride, which saved my life. \n I was always driven to succeed academically and wanted to attend a top college to improve my chances of following in my grandfather's footsteps. At Wake Forest University, I majored in chemistry and volunteered at healthcare clinics in Winston-Salem. I was thrilled to attend Wake Forest for medical school, which is where my passion for cardiology began to blossom. \n I did my internal medicine residency at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas because the program director's pitch included that the school is known for training cardiologists and sending them all over the world. I knew I wanted to live in North Carolina, so the all over the world part didn't attract me. The cardiology training program did. \n During my cardiology fellowship at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, I fell in love with the city and with a New Orleans girl named Alex. \n During my second year in fellowship, I interviewed for a job with a Wilmington practice with incredible doctors, advanced practitioners and administrators. Accepting the job was one of the easiest decisions of my life. (Marrying Alex was the easiest.) \n My specialties include general cardiology; advanced imaging, including transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography; stress testing and coronary CTA. I also perform cardioversions and implant loop recorders. I love my job, my patients, this community and the people with whom I have the pleasure of working. \n In my free time, I love running and spending time with Alex and our young son. A wonderful golden retriever and calico cat complete our family. We are in love with the city and enjoy days on the beach, diving into new restaurants and bars, walking the loop and exploring all the water sports the area makes possible.

My favorite bedtime story was about a young rabbit who fell in a hole and broke his leg. I was the hero who came along, mended his leg and safely dispatched him to his anxiously awaiting mother. This may have been one of the reasons I was destined at a young age to do medicine (although not veterinary strangely enough). I was even called Marcus Welby at times, for those of us old enough to remember that popular TV show. \n My favorite subject in school was science, and I was immediately captivated by the technology of cardiology when it came time to make my subspecialty choice. It was at that juncture that I moved from my country of birth, Ireland, to Cleveland to pursue higher training in cardiology at Cleveland Clinic. It helped that my wife, Laura, came with me on that adventure, and we are now 30 years married and three sons richer. \n I dabbled in research, but felt it was too abstract to sustain me professionally. We have the incredible privilege in medicine to meet new people every day and see what is going on in the world. We also have the incredible honor to help those same people. The path is not always easy, but visibly moving people toward improved health is immensely satisfying. \n Following a period in training, we moved to Wilmington in 2000 in search of better weather and a place to raise our family, and we have never looked back. We love the coast and enjoy being at the beach. \n My work in cardiology mainly centers around diagnostics. I believe, like in real estate where location is key, in medicine, diagnosis is key. All effective efforts at treatment stem from a firm diagnosis. I remain committed to maintaining and growing the seeds of medical knowledge that were planted in medical school and committed to having the courage to meet our patients where they need us.