Dr. Patrick N. Pulliam, MD, FAAP, IBCLC

Dr. Pulliam is a board-certified pediatrician who has been practicing pediatrics for over 17 years. He grew up in McDonough, Georgia and attended Woodward Academy. He studied biochemistry at the University of Georgia and received his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1995. He completed his pediatric internship and residency at the Nemours/duPont Hospital for Children/Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 1998. After completing his residency, he was selected to serve as Chief Resident for an additional year.

After serving as Chief Resident, he continued to pursue his interest in research and teaching as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Temple University School of Medicine and caring for children at the children’s hospital there. He was involved in asthma research and in developing and directing asthma care and intervention programs. He also researched new diagnostic methods for young children with fever. He presented his research findings at numerous scientific conferences. The results of his fever research were published in the journal Pediatrics in 2001, the leading pediatrics publication. His research was also featured in the prestigious 2003 Yearbook of Pediatrics.

During medical school, residency, and his academic career, he was involved in a variety of medical missions and training programs for Christian students and residents. He also co-authored a Bible study on medicine and healthcare which is still in use today both in the US and overseas.

In 2001, he and his family decided that it was time to move back to Georgia. After 3 years in private practice in Fayetteville, he founded Covenant Care Pediatrics in 2004. He and his wife, Flory, currently have eight children and live in McDonough. They homeschool their children and are active in their church, where he serves as an elder.

Dr. Pulliam is board certified in pediatrics and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is also a board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC). He is a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and the Christian Medical Society. He has served as a reviewer for several medical journals and has received awards from both the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics for his commitment to continuing medical education and training. Dr. Pulliam’s professional interests include wellness and prevention, breastfeeding, and nutrition. Outside of pediatrics, his interests include theology, gardening, and technology.

Dr. Pulliam feels that one of the best summaries of what it really means to be a doctor is by Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), who has been called the “English Hippocrates” and in many ways is the father of modern medicine. In the Preface to one of his books he states:

It becomes every person who purposes to give himself to the care of others, seriously to consider the four following things: First, that he must one day give an account to the Supreme Judge of all the lives entrusted to his care. Second, that all his skill and knowledge and energy, as they have been given him by God, so they should be exercised for His glory and the good of mankind, and not for mere gain or ambition. Third, and not more beautifully than truly, let him reflect that he has undertaken the care of no mean creature; for, in order that he may estimate the value, the greatness of the human race, the only begotten Son of God became himself a man, and thus ennobled it with His divine dignity, and far more than this, died to redeem it. And fourth, that the doctor being himself a mortal human being, should be diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he himself must one day be a like sufferer.