Robert Caldas, D.O., knows a thing or two about people. A family practitioner for over 20 years, the Mattapoisett man has spent his time building relationships and making a difference. Now, that hard work is paying off.

Caldas will move into his position as Chief Medical Officer of the Southcoast Health System & Hospital Group October 1, overseeing the medical staff and working to ensure the group is providing the kind of care he believes in.

“Being a doctor was just what I wanted to do,” Caldas says in his office at Hawthorn Medical. “Even as a kid, I just knew that was it.”

Caldas grew up in the south end of New Bedford, the son of a beautician and merchant marine. In high school, he joined the ROTC program and eventually got a scholarship to attend Providence College. Though interested in optometry, a school adviser put him on the track to medical school at New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Osteopathic medicine is slightly different from more common “allopathic” approach used by holders of an M.D. title, Caldas explains. Though both are trained and qualified for the full scope of medicine and surgery, D.O. holders tend to have a more holistic approach to patients by focusing on total body health.

“During the Civil War, an M.D., Andrew Taylor Still, got the idea of body structure and function,” Caldas says. “This means the alignment of your spine may affect the function of your body.” He said the person who developed chiropractic work actually took it from Still’s lectures, and that many people mistake D.O.s as ‘the back doctors.’

“We had courses in manipulation,” Caldas says, “doing modalities typically associated with a chiropractor. But we also had more insight to human behavior courses and got more information about nutrition at the time.”

Caldas says his training has significantly prepared him for family practice, which he has been doing for 20 years. Along with a private practice he has worked at Family Wellness Center in Dartmouth and is currently at Hawthorn Medical Associates.

He says the hardest part of moving to a new position is saying goodbye.

“I won’t be seeing patients anymore. The last month or so has been very teary-eyed and tissues. A lot of these people I’ve known for 23 years. We’ve gone through everything—cancer, illness, difficulties—and it’s like saying goodbye to some of your good friends.”

As CMO, Caldas will have a number of responsibilities, including overseeing patient care and safety for the health system and credentialing and physicians. He’s no stranger to leadership, thanks to the ROTC and numerous administration positions in his career.

“I’ve enjoyed my time in family practice,” he says. “I like to think I can take the experiences from my time in it with my new role. You either have the drive or you don’t. I think I’ve had the drive to do this.” He adds that his love of foreign languages and learning them, including Portuguese, which he says he often speaks more than English during work, has brought a love of cultural sensitivity that he would like to apply more into the system.

“What keeps me going is the relationships forged with the people,” Caldas says. “The payoff is being there for people and that they trust your word and trust you’re looking out for their welfare. They know they can come to you and get direction or counsel.”