For the first time ever, Andalusia will have a full-time cardiologist when Dr. Greg Price opens his practice next month.

Price, who is originally from Center Point, Ala., relocated from St. George, Utah.

He did his cardiology training at the University of Utah in Salt Lake, City, before beginning his practice in St. George.

“St. George is in the desert,” he said. “It’s dry and hot, but it got me out of the snow.”

As a native Alabamian, he said, he thought Salt Lake’s City’s were pretty, but soon grew tired of shoveling snow.

When he moved to St. George, it was a very small town, and he practiced in a facility comparable in size to Andalusia Regional Hospital.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view, the community boomed,” he said. “The population exploded, and the hospital is now a large heart hospital.”

Price said he and his wife, Heide, decided they wanted to get back to a smaller community. When his mother’s health declined and he was 2,000 miles away, he knew it was time to look at Alabama.

“We started looking, and the opportunity presented itself here,” he said.

“My wife loves the community and the area,’ he said. “And I always wanted to live in the country. We are only a five-minute drive out, so this is good.”

Price said he hopes to help develop a cardiovascular cath lab here, which would open the door to more local cardiac care.

He said if patients need to leave the community for surgical interventions, he will let them patients to decide where they are comfortable.

“Patient comfort is a critical part of care,” he said. “If a patient wants to go to Dothan, to Montgomery, to Birmingham, or to Pensacola, I want to do what’s best for them.”

Heide Price is a nurse practitioner who specializes in cardiology, and likely will work with her husband in the future.

Together, they have a son, 24, in Las Vegas; a daughter, 21, in Reno; and two younger sons, Conner and McClaine, ages 14 and 10.

He is a pilot, and also enjoys cycling and fly fishing.

Price’s office is located at 215 Medical Drive, Suite 1, and his office number is 334.222.4327.

He hopes to open the office on Aug. 4.