Department of Family Medicine
Buffalo Medical Group, PC
Specialty:  Family Medicine

Dr.  Nicole Leigh Symons, a former clinical associate professor in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University (ECU), Greenville, NC, joined the Buffalo Medical Group Department of Family Medicine in August 2007.

A native of Western New York, Dr. Symons earned her medical degree at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences where she was recognized for academic excellence. She completed her three-year Family Medicine training at The Brody School of Medicine, and served as chief resident during her final year.

Since 2000, Dr. Symons had been a member of the faculty at the East Carolina University Department of Family Medicine, serving initially as a clinical instructor and then a clinical assistant professor prior to her recent appointment as a clinical associate professor. She also served four years as assistant director of the Family Medicine Residency program.

Her academic duties and responsibilities included mentoring and advising Family Medicine residents, teaching residents in both outpatient and inpatient settings, chairing the Residency Curriculum Committee, and serving as a member of the Resident Evaluation and Promotion Committee and the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee.

At the conclusion of the 2006-2007 academic year, Dr. Symons was honored with a faculty teaching award and also was presented with an award for “outstanding clinical service.”

As a clinician, Dr. Symons worked in the ECU Family Medicine Ambulatory Care Center, and acquired extensive experience caring for acutely ill inpatients at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, a division of University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina in Greenville.

She is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians.

Like her husband, Andre L. Lopez, MD, who returned to his native Western New York to join her at Buffalo Medical Group, Dr. Symons advocates the use of evidence based medicine to ensure optimum patient care outcomes, and also uses electronic medical records technology to improve the coordination of patient care and monitor the quality of care more effectively.