Dr. Bob Johnson was there when Albert Kane started showing the symptoms of an abdominal aneurysm in his Concord office.

He was there at 87-year-old Phil Speigel's house when Speigel was feeling sick but couldn't make it through the snow to get to the office.

He was there for the funeral when Marylou Armstrong lost her father, and again when she lost her husband.

Now, he won't be there anymore.

Johnson retired this month after more than 30 years serving patients as a primary care doctor in Concord. For his 1,700 patients, that retirement will be a big change.

"I'm not nervous. I'm angry," said Marcia Davis, 84, a patient of nearly 15 years, during a recent visit. "He has no right to retire before I die."

Davis wishes Johnson well, but she also knows that his replacement won't know about her family, her joking tone and her minor health problems - what Johnson calls her "squeaks and rattles."

Johnson's practice has straddled the divide between two generations of medicine. He embraced new medical technology, the growth of the community's specialty practices and the electronic medical record, which he adopted so fast Concord Hospital gave him an award. He transitioned from the old business model,

of an independent physician-owned practice, to a more modern arrangement, where he works for the hospital. But he also did things that fewer young doctors do anymore. He made house calls, treated his patients when they were in the hospital - and stayed in the same community for his entire career.

"There's just been a change in the way that doctors are approaching their work," said Stephanie Pagliuca, the recruitment center director for Bi-State Primary Care, which helps practices find primary care doctors in the state. Younger doctors tend to practice just in the hospital or the office, not both. They also tend to move more often during their career, as opportunities or family needs beckon.

Pagliuca said that when internists like Johnson retire, it often takes more than one doctor to fill their shoes.

So for Johnson's patients, there is a double sadness. There's the loss of the man who remembers their every health hiccup and personal milestone - and the loss of a doctor who played a role in nearly every part of their medical care.

"It's hard," said Armstrong, 70, of Concord, a patient from the beginning. "You're not going to find this kind of doctor anymore, I don't think."

In Concord, the transition from old medicine to new is happening slowly. Though the median age of doctors here is a bit old at 47, there are only a handful of doctors contemplating retirement in the next few years, a hospital spokesman said. On average, tenure for Concord Hospital primary care physicians is 11 years, a number that reflects the changing dynamics of the physician workforce and the many younger physicians Concord Hospital has hired recently to expand its primary care roster.

"I'm the oldest guy in the internal medicine section," Johnson said.

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