One year ago, Dr. Emily Holt opened the doors of Poppy Direct Care in a 100-year-old house in Uptown New Orleans. Attendees of the 2025 DPC Summit walked through her clinic, met her patients in the neighborhood pizza shop, and watched a mission-driven family physician build something real from the ground up. A year later, almost everything around her has changed. What hasn't changed is Dr. Holt. A Year of Building, Quietly and Intentionally Poppy's panel has more than doubled

Dr. Nyasha Spears When Dr. Nyasha Spears walked into a mandatory 4 PM meeting that had been called with less than four hours notice, she already knew something was wrong. Her century-old community clinic in downtown Duluth, the legacy practice founded by Dr. Rudy nearly a hundred years earlier, was being closed by the corporate hospital system that had absorbed it. She had 36 days to figure out the rest of her career. What happened next is one of the most important DPC origin

Dr. Jihan Ansari If you've ever wondered whether you can leave the insurance-based system and build a thriving direct primary care practice without a massive marketing budget, a perfect business plan, or even total certainty about what you're doing, Dr. Jihan Ansari's story is for you. Dr. Ansari is the co-founder of Harbor Direct Primary Care in South Orange County, California, where she practices alongside her husband, Dr. Pedram Ansari. Her path to DPC wasn't paved with a

How Dr. Nadia Sirdar Left Hospital Medicine, Opted Out of Medicare, and Built a Bethesda DPC Practice Rooted in Aging in Place, Women's Midlife Health, and Real Relationships Dr. Nadia Sirdar There is a moment most physicians know but rarely name. You're at the bedside. You're walking a family through hospice. You're saying the right words, the trained words, the compassionate words. And somewhere in the middle of it, you realize you can't quite feel them anymore. The work is

By My DPC Story | April 2026 | Marketing in Direct Care Series Dr. Ashley Agan of Scottie ENT When most physicians think about marketing their private practice, they imagine expensive ad campaigns, billboards along the highway, or a social media strategy that feels more performative than authentic. Dr. Ashley Agan , otolaryngologist and founder of Scottie ENT in Dallas, Texas, took a different path entirely and it is working. In this episode of the My DPC Story podcast, Dr. A