I met with Dr. Alissa Speziale once, when I was new to the area and needed to establish care with a GI specialist. On that first visit, she had none of my health records, knew nothing of my 20+ year history with ulcerative colitis, and had not spoken to my previous physician — she insisted that I was on «too much» medication and that we needed to get me off one and decrease the dose of another. At the time, and after 20+ years with Ulcerative Colitis, I was on only two medications — Remicade and Lialda. Both are very expensive, but are also very effective medications for UC. No matter what I said about the other medications I’d tried(Prednisone, Rowasa, Asacol, etc.) and how I explained that they didn’t control the disease and that she should consult with my previous physician(in Portland) — she insisted that I needed to get off Lialda and get my dosage of Remicade down. Based on nothing but a personal opinion. She refused to do a blood test to check my trough levels of Remicade, insisting that the test was too expensive and that doctors didn’t really know how to read them(my previous GI doctor in Portland sure as hell did). I left immediately and never went back. I would never trust myself to this doctor’s care. Her transparent and intense focus on saving money, without respect for past experiences or regard for consequences to the patient was stunning to me. I’ve never seen that in a doctor before. DONOTUSETHISDOCTOR.
