Comment on Watauga Orthopaedics surgeon returns home to practice

Dustin Price was away from Johnson City for six years for his medical training, but he always planned to return home to care for patients in his hometown – and now he’s back. “This has always been home,” says Price, who says he’s here to stay for the long haul. “I always knew I wanted to be back in the Tri-Cities and take care of people in this area.” He returned home about a year ago after a five-year orthopedic surgery residency with Greenville Health System in South Carolina and a one-year fellowship at a specialty clinic in Mississippi – an additional year of training that many doctors do not pursue. He says spending a year so far away was a significant sacrifice for his family – his wife, Candice, their two young children, and both extended families; the distance kept them from seeing relatives often.