Dr. Thomas Lawrence Toth, MD

Welcome to My Doctor Online, a website Kaiser Permanente physicians developed to help you address healthcare needs simply. I am board certified in Internal Medicine and provide care for adults. From this site, view your preventive needs, order prescriptions online or act for a family member. Learn more about conditions, online programs and services provided on campus, to improve your health, in mind and body. Background I was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of an immigrant steelworker who was a World War II veteran. Having decided that losing my Jersey accent would be a positive development, I made a quantum leap and went to Harvard for my bachelor's degree. I graduated in 1979 with honors and a degree in Chemistry and Physics. After graduation, I had a yearning to travel and explore teaching. I was awarded a fellowship to teach in Australia at the Geelong College, a secondary school. I found teaching to be challenging and fun at times, but I wanted to do more as a career. First, however, my wanderlust would be satiated. I picked a circuitous path to the island continent through the South Pacific and then back through Asia, Europe, and North Africa. That journey was a year and a half long phantasmagoria. I learned more about myself and other cultures than possibly all of my other years combined. Upon returning to the United States in 1981, I decided to explore the two careers then of most interest to me: geophysics and medicine. After working for two years in the shaky field of seismology, medicine won and I enrolled in medical school at the University of Colorado. I received my MD in 1987. I also tried to ski my brains out in the Rockies. I went on to the University of Utah and its affiliated hospitals for my internal medicine internship and residency from 1987 until 1990. I opted to join Kaiser Permanente over numerous other offers when I finished my residency. Kaiser Permanente attracted me because of the variety of experiences it offered including outpatient and inpatient care, teaching, and research. I was also impressed with a practice environment where the doctors made the decisions and where quality of care was taken seriously. I began my career with Kaiser Permanente in the Sacramento area in 1990 and then relocated to Santa Rosa in 1999. I have found that Kaiser Permanente has continually improved over the years, both for physicians and for patients. Tens of thousands of patient visits later, it continues to be a privilege to be a physician, to have the opportunity to have a positive impact on so many lives. I also have had the opportunity to teach medical students and residents from the University of California. Currently, I serve as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine for the University of California, San Francisco. Within Kaiser Permanente, I also have been involved in various quality assurance and improvement activities over the years. Happily settled in Santa Rosa, my wife and I have two young adult children. When not in the clinic or hospital, I enjoy time off with them. We all love to travel. My other interests include snow skiing (the steeper and deeper the better) and photography. My general philosophy as your physician is that we are partners in caring for your health. Healthy lifestyle choices can go a long way towards achieving and maintaining good health, especially good dietary choices, regular exercise, and not smoking. I try to practice what I preach: for example, my commute since moving to Santa Rosa is a two mile walk to work. My patients range in age from teenagers to over one hundred years old, all with interesting life experiences. I look forward to learning more about YOU as well as your health problems. Welcome to my practice! I chose to specialize in internal medicine because I enjoy its general breadth of training and the detective work involved in investigating challenging and, at times, perplexing diagnoses. Since 1996, I have split my time between being an outpatient clinician and an inpatient hospitalist. I enjoy treatin