Like Pelli, Weisberger first went to Jonesport, Maine, to fulfill a National Health Service Corp commitment that paid his medical school costs in exchange for four years of service in a rural area of medical need. A chance meeting with John Gaddis, D.O., who was from the Downeast region, convinced Weisberger to apply for the position.
Soon after, Weisberger and his wife, Teri, arrived at the Arnold Memorial Medical Center in Jonesport in 1985 ready to work as a health care team, since Teri Weisberger was a board-certified family nurse practitioner.
During the first 10 years, Weisberger added three to four physician assistants and nurse practitioners to the center's staff to help serve the 3,000 patients from the surroundeding five towns. Almost immediately, the practice out the old Victorian home in downtown Jonesport where it was located was outgrown.
So, in 1998, Weisberger, along with a group of local community supporters, secured a federal grant to build a new, high-tech health center that doubled the space of the practice and provided badly need parking for the patientes. Yet, despite the major upgrade, Weisberger continued to prioritize the house call that became a staple of his practice.
"The people in town really grew to love him," said Andy Swift, a mechanic whose family of four were all patients of Weisberger's at the time. "They picked up on the fact that he really cared for them. There was no ego involved. The waiting room was always full."
In the mid-1990s when Oxycontin started showing up in Washington County, Weisberger took courses and studied pain management to become proficient on addiction and dependence and alternative pain treatments.