Paulette Y. Saddler, MD

I decided to become a physician when I was 5 years old and received a nurse’s bag as a Christmas gift. I called it my “doctor bag.”

In elementary school, I read every book available about Florence Nightingale—she was the only female role model in medicine that I could find at the time. When I was at the Bronx High School of Science, I developed a keen interest in biology and decided to pursue internal medicine after my first clinical experience at what was then known as Babies and Children’s Hospital in New York City.

During my training, I was taught by some of the best physicians, including Dr. Walter Lester Henry Jr., the first African American regent and master of the American College of Physicians; Dr. LaSalle Leffall Jr., the first African American president of the American Cancer Society; and Dr. John L. Townsend, an extraordinary internist and endocrinologist. My mentors helped shape my philosophy about care: all patients deserve excellent care and should be treated as a whole person, not just for a disease or condition.

As chief resident in internal medicine at a hospital in Washington, DC, I worked every day to provide the best services for a population that had been denied excellent medical care for generations. Seeing firsthand how access to quality healthcare could change people’s lives helped shape me into the physician I am today.

Several years later, I received a breast cancer diagnosis. A colleague referred me to an acupuncturist, and the treatments helped alleviate the nausea I experienced as a result of chemotherapy. This led me to take a course in medical acupuncture for physicians.

Subsequently, I opened a practice combining internal medicine and acupuncture. My patients were referred to me by my former colleagues in rheumatology, orthopedics, medical oncology, internal medicine, and gynecology. I provided symptom relief to patients at the nearby cancer center and worked with several plastic surgeons and their patients during the reconstructive surgery process.

At NYU Langone, I use my acupuncture experience to treat people who are experiencing headaches, anxiety, constipation, stress-exacerbated conditions, discomfort from recent surgical scars, and the side effects of cancer treatment, such as nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. I also treat those who have fibromyalgia or are experiencing neck, shoulder, hand, knee, and back pain. To provide seamless and coordinated acupuncture treatments to my patients, I work closely with physicians in other specialties such as neurology, orthopedics, and rheumatology. Having a physician perform acupuncture is reassuring to my patients because it adds an extra level of safety for a type of treatment that is often new to them.

I am a fellow of the American College of Physicians.