Bob Paeglow, MD
By a supernatural experience, “Dr. Bob” was called into medicine to care for the poor in his thirties. His election was confirmed when he was miraculously accepted to medical school at age thirty-six despite not being qualified for an interview. Giving up his career, and middle class lifestyle, Dr. Bob started medical school supported by his wife and four children.
Dr. Bob credits divine grace for his ability to achieve in med school graduating at the top of his class with more awards and honors than any of his classmates. In the fourth year of medical school, Jesus called him to go to central Mozambique and serve as a “doctor” to fifty thousand post-civil war refugees. The horrors he experienced in the refugee camps further cemented his commitment to his life mission of caring for the poor.
During his residency, Dr. Bob took every available opportunity to travel to the poorest nations on the planet and provide whatever care he could including preaching the good news about Jesus. He started his career as an attending physician using all his vacation time to travel to Mozambique, and many other poor nations, on short term missions providing care in remote areas where there were no doctors. His original intent was to work towards full time overseas medical/gospel missions. But God had another idea.
After a month long mission in Kenya in July 2000, in which Dr. Bob and his small team saw over seventeen thousand patients, he returned home broken and burnt out. Barely able to continue working he cried out to the Lord to deliver him from his pain and take him home to heaven. God responded by calling him to open a clinic in West Hill, the poorest neighborhood in Albany, right around the corner from his boyhood home.
Koinonia Primary Care, at the Capital region Prayer and Healing Center, was established in January 2001 by Dr. Bob and his beloved wife Leane, who is an RN. He gave up his employment at Albany Medical Center, and along with Leane, worked for no salary living in a vacated church rectory one block from the clinic. Koinonia provided primary care and mental health services to all regardless of a patient’s ability to pay, combining healing prayer along with conventional medical services. Under their leadership, Koinonia continues to grow and prosper aspiring to be a “Lighthouse of Hope” to the poorest and most marginalized of people.
Dr. Bob has been honored receiving the AAMC’s “Humanism in Medicine Award” in 2006 and has been featured in People Magazine, Good Morning America and CBS Evening news. He also received three “Golden Apple Awards” for teaching medical students. His memoir, “Hope Does Not Disappoint” will be published in late 2023.
Dr. Bob, and Leane, continue to work full time at Koinonia. He continues to innovate creative programs to provide the highest level of care to the underserved. He lays hands on and prays for every patient during their visits. He has served as an elder at Loudonville Community Church and continues to serve as the President of the Albany County Board of Health.
Dr. Bob and Leane are proud of their four children, all of whom are serving the Lord, the two youngest at Koinonia Primary Care. They enjoy spending time with their six grandchildren. They continue to pray and work towards the Lord’s transformation of West Hill and beyond.