Dr. Rachel DiSanto Joins Family Practice of Newport

Dr. Rachel DiSanto joins Drs. James Holcomb, Lisa LaCarrubba-Blondin, and John Lippmann
as well as family nurse practitioner, Linda Chasse at Family Practice of Newport

Doctors are trained to meet the physical needs of their patients, but for Rachel DiSanto, as well as some other doctors, the spiritual needs of patients are equally as important.
“I think they are completely connected and dependent on one another,” Dr. DiSanto said. I feel spiritual health is a hugely important, but often overlooked aspect of one's total health. By addressing spiritual concerns, often one's physical, and certainly one's emotional health, can be impacted. For instance, I feel strongly, and there is research to back this up, that prayer makes a huge difference in someone's life and health.”
As a devout Christian, Dr. DiSanto is comfortable about sharing her religious beliefs and even praying with her patients if that is what they choose. However, she emphasized that she'd never push her beliefs on anybody.
Dr. DiSanto is the newest member of the Family Practice of Newport. She joins Drs. James Holcomb, Lisa LaCarrubba-Blondin, and John Lippmann as well as family nurse practitioner, Linda Chasse. The new doctor sees patients from birth to senior citizens.
“She is such a compassionate person,” said Roz Leone, FPN practice manager. “She really cares for people and she is a quick learner. We're so happy to have her.”
A 1996 graduate of Littleton High School in Littleton, New Hampshire, Dr. DiSanto is no stranger to small town America. Orleans County reminds her very much of the Littleton of her youth in the days before the big box stores arrived. That struggling, yet tranquil community located in the shadows of the White Mountains, has since changed into a bustling, prosperous, and very different community. The current discussion about the possibility of box stores settling on the Derby Road reminds her of similar discussions that took place in Littleton. She said the box stores brought a mixture of good and bad to that community.
“Coming here is like coming home,” Dr. DiSanto said. Besides liking the community, she said the people in the community, and her co-workers, have been welcoming. She is also excited by the fact that she and her husband, Seth, who is an officer on the Newport Police Department, have two ski mountains to choose between Burke and Jay. Dr. DiSanto skis while her husband's favorite mode of downhill transportation is by snowboard.
Unlike Dr. DiSanto and her small town roots, her husband grew up in the urban center of Syracuse, New York. However, she said that he has already grown accustomed to rural Vermont. The couple recently became parents following the birth of their daughter, Zia Isabella.
Dr. DiSanto's father is a general contractor in Littleton and her mother is a retired teacher. Watching the challenges her mother faced as a teacher she knew she didn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps.
“I didn't have the courage to go into teaching,” Dr. DiSanto said. Besides that I felt led into this profession.”
When Dr. DiSanto enrolled at Elmira College in Elmira, New York she planned on pursing a career as a researcher in a laboratory somewhere. It didn't take her long to learn that life amongst the four walls of a laboratory just wasn't for her.
“I like to talk to people too much,” she said. I found bench work boring.” Not only does she like to talk to people, she enjoys listening. Her pleasantly outgoing personality quickly puts people at ease.
One of the highlights of her college years was working with people with HIV. “I fell in love with these patients. I loved to hear their stories and about their lives.” She used her medical skills in El Salvador and Kenya.
Following her education and residency, Dr. DiSanto said she and her husband agreed they wanted to live in rural America. She was thrilled when she learned that Family Practice was looking for a new doctor. Not only is she able to live in a rural community, but she is able to work with a supportive team, treating appreciative patients about an hour's drive from her parents.
“We love it here,” she said. “I love the culture and I love the people. It's everything we expected it to be.”

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