About

My goal is to be a great doctor--the kind that is attentive, caring, and who takes the time to listen to his patients. I went through medical school and residency expecting to be that doctor once I finished. I even took an extra year after medical school and residency to complete a fellowship in geriatric medicine (focusing on care for those 65 and older) because I saw that the older we get, the more observant we have to be about our health to make sure we age successfully. This is where a good doctor can play an incredibly important role. Instead of using a cookie-cutter approach, a good doctor spends time understanding each patient and figuring out what's important to that person and how to achieve that goal.

Unfortunately, the current model of primary care is not designed to help build this kind of doctor-patient relationship. Instead, it has turned into a business where the focus is about getting more patient visits in less time and keeping patients within a network of specialist referrals so the system can keep making money. It wasn't until I worked in this system when I realized how it operated. I tried to get away from this by being thorough and trying to manage as much as I knew I could without making a bunch of referrals. I didn't want my patients to have to spend more time and money seeing a bunch of other doctors when I knew I could help them get healthier if I could just spend more time with them to communicate and develop a solid plan. I was ultimately trying to be the “great” doctor I always hoped to be.

Unfortunately, the current system is designed to make doctors just “good enough”. It became evident that it's about trying to see more patients in less time so hospital systems and insurance companies can meet their goal, which is to make a profit. It ultimately doesn't matter what that means for my patients or me. This is why most people, and their doctors, are frustrated. Having been through the healthcare system, both as a doctor and as a patient, I know that it's becoming more complicated, more expensive, and more impersonal-even though we have some of the best medical minds and technology in the world.

I eventually discovered Direct Primary Care. It sounded like a new concept, but it has been around for more than a decade, and it continues to grow. The more I learned about it, the more I became convinced that this is the best option to shift the focus away from profits and back to patients.

For me, being a doctor is more than just a job, and it's a responsibility that I do not take lightly. It's about personally investing in someone's wellness, and there's nothing more valuable than health. I knew if I wanted to practice medicine the right way, then this is the way to do it. That's why in November 2022, I left my factory-style corporate medicine job and started Pathway Direct Primary Care, so that I could get back to practicing medicine.