Direct Primary Care Doctors
We're thrilled to bring you the most epic recap of the DPC Summit 2023 in this special episode with guest Dr. Amber Beckenhauer.
Today’s episode highlights all the 2023 DPC Summit happenings! A recap brought to you by two seasoned DPC Summit Veterans. From the quirky and nerdy to the awe-inspiring and innovative, Amber and Maryal will share how the Summit exceeded all expectations this year. But that's not all - we're bringing you the juicy pro tips we've gathered from years of DPC Summit experience. Whether you're a seasoned veteran like us or planning your first trip, these tips are sure to up your Summit game.
The energy, the connections, and the groundbreaking insights made this DPC Summit one for the books. Tune in to hear our unfiltered thoughts on what made this year so special and why we're already counting down to the next one!
Did you attend this year’s Summit? What were the “AHA” moments for you?
Send me an email and let me know!
~Maryal
*CORRECTION: Karaoke and Maryal's singing Fight Song was at the Health Rosetta Summit 2022. Join in the fun, including karaoke, at RosettaFest 2023 (virtual. and in-person options available)!
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Transcript*
Direct Primary care is an innovative alternative path to insurance-driven healthcare. Typically, a patient pays their doctor a low monthly membership and in return builds a lasting relationship with their doctor and has their doctor available at their fingertips. Welcome to the My D P C story podcast, where each week you will hear the ever so relatable stories shared by physicians who have chosen.
To practice medicine in their individual communities through the direct primary care model. I'm your host, Marielle conception family physician, D P C, owner, and former fee for service. Doctor, I hope you enjoy today's episode and come away feeling inspired about the future of patient care direct primary care.
Today's episode is a special treat, and it is with great pride and honor that I reintroduce Dr. Amber Becken Hower. Dr. Amber Becken Hower is known by almost all of her patients as Dr. B. She grew up in the small Nebraska town of Ashland, where she now has a second location. She completed her medical degree at K C U M B in Kansas City, Missouri from 2004 to 2008 and finished family practice residency in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2011.
In July of 2011, she moved to Blair with her family to begin employment at M C H and Health System. From 2011 to 2017, she not only practiced primary care at the clinic for all ages, but also delivered infants by vaginal or cesarean delivery, staffed to the emergency room. Served as medical director of the ER and Blair Clinic, and lastly served as medical staff president before her departure.
From 2018 on, she continues to help the local hospital by working in the ER and delivering babies vaginally and by C-section. Still, Dr. Becken Hower enjoys teaching family practice residents in her spare time, and started at Nebraska Medicine Clarkson Family Medicine Residency Program in the fall of 2018 to help promote the education of rural family practice with her osteopathic medicine background.
Whole person healthcare resonates with her. It also drives her passion for integrative wellness and hormonal balance to further her studies, she has completed courses for the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. Dr. Becken Hower believes that passion starts with people and we can all make a difference. One patient and person at a time.
Amber Marielle.
So this is way better than Oprah and Uma, man. So Amber's got Amber Marielle. You gotta watch the Zoom to see it. And I got Callie. Let's go. Let's go. Let's a little tired. Little extra summit. Tired are we? Summit? Oh my goodness.
Post-summit. Post-summit. We are talking post-summit. It was so, so good.
So. So the sushi train after I left and went back to Nebraska, yes, totally for after I was gone.
So pro tip for Summit 2024, which I will just drop. This right now is gonna be the, one of the weekends after Father's Day in June of next year, potentially in Texas, potentially in Dallas, is what I hear. The location is not nailed down to, uh, specifics, but it is going to be happening in the last two weeks of June after Father's Day next year.
So hopefully more people can come, but, oh my gosh, like my pro tip, getting back to that is, Look at the hotel and then look at all the restaurants around it, because literally, I, I don't know. On the last day we were there, my husband and I stayed until Monday. I was so tired from the night before that.
'cause I was eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream in the lobby to like this midnight. Mm-hmm. Super worth it. But, There was a sushi train restaurant, literally like around the, the corner. And it was like, what the, I just walked, I literally walked two miles to find a Starbucks that was open on, on Sunday and there was nothing there, but there was a sushi train right there.
So long story, first to admit, town of 2000 I left at and I said, what the hell is a sushi train? Uh, amber, like a train that takes the sushi around. Sorry, didn't catch that one. I'm too busy running a business. Too busy.
I am bringing the Cali, you're bringing Nebraska, man, that's pretty good. There was like one fish market in Omaha, like way out on like 130 second and like, I don't, not dodge people who will, who have lived there will understand that, but there was like literally that you're bringing the the Nebraska to the Cali man.
Crazy. Crazy. Oh my God. So, so let's talk things that people actually wanna hear. Oh my god. Okay. Good times. So sister, like how awesome the D P C board did that was elected. To put this show together. I mean, I was on the board last year and I thought we rocked it and it was super hard, but it was super awesome.
And then I show up at this and I'm like, oh man, Davenport really stood up and, and helped elect people to be on that board. And I know we elect Davenport to run that this year. I cannot say enough. Amazing.
It was incredible and literally every single person had great moments, uh, in addition to networking.
'cause those are always great, but just the three oh ones were off the hook. And that's honestly where I was camping out most of the time. And I came back like super rejuvenated, super pumped and filled with all of this new knowledge as to how to. Improve my practice because we're talking about everything under the D p C model and so I, it, it's never ever comparable to a regular, you know, conference that we would go to as doctors, but I, I absolutely agree.
The, the team that put this together, I. Super, super, super kudos to all of you. 'cause it was incredible and enjoy and enjoyed by every single person. So yeah, I totally agree with you.
I, I, by mistake, actually went down a day early this year, which you informed me, uh, Amber, this is, and you did not sign up for it.
Oh, okay, Jack. Check mark. So I got to play Ppu Golf in downtown Minneapolis with my best friend Brooke that rode with me, and that was awesome. You know, we walked and we played PPU Golf, and we went to the target that was only a block away, maybe twice. It was great. So I would definitely recommend going in a day early if you can.
Even if by accident, I mean that really works. But like you said, even staying a day later. Because everything that you're trying to really download in your brain and you're trying to catch up on a little sleep, or maybe you're trying to inform your husband how to become a D P C doctor 'cause he is now gonna be D P C.
Yeah. Do just whatever. All the things. Right? All the things. But definitely there are, uh, strategic ways to do this so you don't have to come back completely exhausted.
Absolutely. And I think that the, the stress of I have to fit it all in was definitely eased up by the fact that, you know, like we actually got to see each other, this D P C summit, unlike last year, where I was like, where have you been?
And you were like, I've been on stage and I completely did not know that so clearly. It was a different experience this year. But yeah, like we are family with distance between us most of the year and it's really, really easy to, I. Just, you know, talk and talk and talk and talk, but you have to have time to recharge so you can keep talking without passing out.
I totally fell asleep. My husband was telling me about his day and whatever, and I was like, Uhhuh, Uhhuh. And I woke up three hours later and I was like, well, there you go. So that's what happens when you don't recharge. Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, like I, I mentioned this when Jeff Davenport and I did the preview to the summit episode, but like, I will stay now at the, the conference hotel rather than getting an Airbnb one or whatnot.
Just because like, that also adds to the ease of going to a conference. Like you just have to go up the elevator to get, you know, change of clothes or Oh, yeah. The snacks that you didn't bring downstairs, whatever. But the, yeah, but adding the, the day before and after. Really helped. I, I agree with you on that for sure.
Well, and when you said D P C family, it truly is because, you know, forever friends or family or whatever it is, you know how you were always able to just pick up right where you left off. Yeah. Same thing like I was telling you just with some of the health stuff going on, I was exhausted. And I love how you can walk by this big group of people that no and love you and you no and love them.
And there it is. Just kind of like catch it, catch you tomorrow or catch you there. You know? There isn't like, oh boo, you're not doing this, or everybody is just so accepting of everything all the time. They're just so involved in being able to have that chance to see each other. 'cause it's one or two times a year and we all get along so well that it's like, well that's fine.
If you can't do anything today, we'll check you tomorrow and we'll go out with these seven people tonight. You know, that's the thing about our whole group is that we intermix and mingle so well. We're just collectively taking things from each other's knowledge banks and applying it to our own. Yeah, it's, it is super cool.
Super nerdy, super cool, super nerdy, but whatever. But like super nerdy in a good way because for me, nerdy was like, man, this is like banded with my anatomy tank crew. Like, it was so much fun. And, and you know what, I'm not what I'm talking about because like, that's your family because you know, in ours it was like conception kler dang, Daniel Inger and like, We would always be at like the CC'S pizza or the Chinese restaurant.
Oh my God. Heck yeah. Yep. Cali Brass, Cali, Nebraska. And there ain't no CC'S pizza. I'm California. I will tell you that. I think they're now, but yes.
Oh no. Well, it, it was just so. I mean, that how you described it is literally how it is. 'cause it's like, you know, oh, plans fell through 'cause you know, this happened or that happened or whatever.
And it's like you just, you find somebody else like, Hey, I'll text you. You wanna come join us, blah, blah. And I, I very much agree with you that it was like, most of us are recovering from the fee for service world, let me put it that way. Um, yeah. Because everyone's affected by that. Yeah. So let me ask you this.
What were some of your moments? 'cause I know you must have had at least one, if not like 20, where you had people who were new to the D B C summit and were having aha moments in front of your eyes. What were some of those moments for you? Well, I love it. I mean, you're right, they do have aha moments, but I think the biggest thing for me is that there are still times that we're talking to people that are not newbies, that are having aha moments.
And that just goes to show that entrepreneur entrepreneurs and I obviously can't talk at 10 o'clock at night, but as entrepreneurs, like we are always in that cre creativity bank, and I don't know. How it was in Arnold, but here in my neck of the woods, I lived in like this little pod of a hospital with three exam rooms.
Right. And the nurse desk. Yes. I ran up and down to the hospital and to the ER all day every day and to med staff meetings. But that is all I knew. It was this world that was created for me and I didn't really have to think outside of that hospital. And now being an entrepreneur all day long, we are able to connect with people and change our environment and our own practice and do all these things.
So, Every time you hear something from someone, it clicks. And I will tell you, one of my favorite was from you and I already talked about it tonight when I was putting Rex to bed, because he has a little teddy bear that needs his ear sewed back on and his little limb is just hanging because Pedro, our dog, got a hold of it and ripped it off.
So I said, aunt Maryelle. Has this idea to do a teddy bear clinic, and we are going to do one and we're gonna sew it all up. What do you think about that? And this is what my three-year-old said. No joke. And I am not lying. He said, but Mommy, what about your clinic? And I said, it's okay. We'll have the Teddy Bear Clinic.
And he said, I think your people will be mad at you. And I said, do you really think they'll be mad? I think they'll be mad at you. And I said, well, that's okay. Would you be mad if I didn't have my clinic? And he said, No, obviously I work too much. And I was like, well, how about we have our healthy human clinic and our Teddy Bear clinic?
He goes, okay, so we have gotta get this Teddy Bear Clinic underway 'cause we got a teddy bear to fix number one and two. We have to do some of these exciting ideas to think outside the box. But for those of you that don't know what a Teddy Bear Clinic is, Mary, I was bringing this up. You know, it's really a way to circumvent this whole process of trying to get kids not to have fears of coming into the doctor and just getting them used to being weighed and what stitches or band-aids and things might look like and having them be involved in, in this.
And it can be something super quick, like an hour. It can be. Five people chosen, it can be 20. But I'm always trying to think of ways to get my kids involved and that is something I know that they would love and I can block time out for. So I'm really excited about that. That'll be one of our first, so that's one of my ahas that I loved.
And then I really enjoy talking to some of the specialists that are now coming into the movement because even though, again, we're primary care, they're specialty care. We've been here, done this now for a while, and some of our ideas are very relevant to them because, We're still working together as specialists in primary care and trying to figure out how to do that process.
So just giving some of those ideas to some of the specialists that I had met along the way this weekend. You know it, those are some of my ahas and I'm sure we have plenty more. What about yours? Totally. And you know, uh, I'll mention some of mine, but what I love when you talk about the specialist in particular is like, I was asking Dr. Laura Kinney about Oh, and she rocked it on her. Oh, totally. Speech by the way. Or her talk just rocked it. I remember. She's so real transparent and direct, direct care. I know, I see how I went with that. But she really is like, she just. I love it. She's just like, do it. Do it. If you want to, don't worry about doing this.
Don't. I just, I love how real she is. And I think sometimes as primary care docs, we've, we get a little in this fear mindset of do we do this? Should we do this? You know, when you have a specialist like that backing you up and saying, I'm here if you need me, but I know you got this and I'm teaching it to you right now.
She, she just totally rocked it.
Absolutely. And she was speaking to me after the conference had ended that. You know, it's really important for specialists to attend, and I agree with what she said. You know, specialists are in the environment that you were talking about just a few minutes ago, and they need to see that there's doctors who are in mostly direct primary care at this.
At this time in our culture. But that's definitely changing, like you said. But there's other doctors who are like, oh my God, you like love medicine and you love your clinic and you also are able to be a parent, or whatever the heck you wanna do. Like, this is so cool. And so I think that's, you know, one of the, the buy-ins for specialists to come.
But then also, like you're talking about, you know, when you are able to then be empowered to say like, yeah, there's a way that to do it in fee for service. And then there's also like, Actual things that we can do that won't put a person in bankruptcy and get, you know, better results than what we would be able to order in fee for service.
You know, those are, those are two things that specialists can definitely benefit from. And I think also a big thing is like Dr. Somodi, I remember when he started on social media, he's a neurologist. He's physically in one of the Carolinas, the think it's North Carolina, but he has licenses in different states and he had helped me virtually with a patient.
And you know, when he got started engaging in social media, I. All of these people are like, oh, you need a neurologist contact Dr. Modi. So I think it's great for networking too, and I'm really grateful that we had specialists like Dr. Kenny who were, who were talking to us about their specialty and about the most common things that she gets contacted about because it really does, you know, It says like, yeah, you, you guys are all doctors.
Like, you know, here, here's the stuff that you can do and you're already doing, and let me just confirm that this is the workflow, or confirm that these are the things that I would do as well. And if you hadn't thought about these things, let, let's add those things on that I've listed here. But yeah, I, I would say that.
Definitely there were aha moments. The first one I had when I was sitting and I was talking to Dr. Ed at the D P C Alliance table, um, next registration. And this, this doctor comes up and she's been in practice for a while, and we were talking about, you know, she didn't think that there were other doctors in her state.
I'm like, well, uh, specifically this was South Dakota. I was like, well, Dr. Lauren Ska is doing OB gyn in now, primarily GYN in, uh, rapid City. And then I was like, I was, I was like getting to, I know it's an RC name, but I can't think of what it was. And I was saying these names and she's like, that's North Dakota.
That's both. And I was like, dude, I was born in Sacramento. Like I'm so sorry I went to Nebraska for school, but I, it's somewhere in South Dakota and here's her episode and you should listen to it. But it was like she wasn't aware that there were other doctors in South Dakota. And I was like, yes, now you are.
Here's someone you can contact 'cause of the DBC directory. Ba. That's, damn.
Oh my goodness. That's, that's a whole nother podcast. But, oh, man. Uh, the, the idea that people were coming with that interest that you and I had at one point, you know, and now we see it in other people, it's so. Oh God. It's just, it warms the soul to see someone who's like, I, but how do you, uh, I And they, they have that hesitancy in their voice and you're like, laying it out.
Yeah. You know, like my E M R is not $40,000 a year. I may like, I'm literally getting paid talking to you right now, like, We're talking of dinner about doing a teddy bear clinic instead of diabetes. Like that was way more fun. And, well, Hayley Miller would disagree with me there, but you know, when it comes to, when it comes to, wow, you can actually do it and people are, you know, taking their new family photos, meaning they've made new family members at, at the end of the conference.
It was so cool. And I, I think that the, the energy, especially like. People when Dr. Neil Douglas was talking and, you know, closing out the house with his story about Ethiopia and the acts that represented so much to him, you know, my husband and I were in the back of the room and we were seeing people like, you know, do, do the thing.
And so it, it was very so full. Like every single day there was at least one. I, I say that very, very lightly. 'cause there was definitely more than one, but there were lots, let me put it that way. Lots of aha moments from, and you're right, it's not just the people who are new to the D P C summit, it was also people who like yourself and myself, who.
We're like rejuvenated and inspired and educated differently than when we arrive. And I will say, because before we started recording, you and I were talking about your flaming gorgeous space. Oh my God. Like everyone should go to bla Nebraska. It's so amazing. Like the last time I was there was eight months ago.
So sad. It's like not like that should never happen again. But when you were showing me your space, you were talking about how Dr. Natalie Gentilly was like blowing your mind left and right in terms of like, Hey, I could, I feel empowered to do that in my space. 'cause you're already doing a lot of the services that she was talking about in her, in her space.
Yeah. We're doing what she's doing, but what's crazy, well, and a lot of it was going to be put into action when the space is done and Covid has slowed us up, but when we open, we'll be able to. But it was really nice to hear her talk literally like six weeks before our building is finished, because we still have a little bit of room to wiggle.
And it made me think about. Just a couple areas, and this is just different for me. Usually I like to hang all the stuff on the wall and you know, all the things. I like to have my space all homey. But I actually watched her talk and I loved that she kept things so clear and rolled things out and rolled things back, and it made me think, you know what, I'm not even gonna buy all this stuff when we first open.
I could just even leave some of these spaces open just to feel out what is this space gonna bring for our town education wise and. And exercise and, and how we wanna use our new clinic. And so, yeah, I mean even who would've known, even DPCs about decorating you, you just don't know what it's gonna bring.
But some, I mean, the aha moments, and you named one of them with Neil. They aren't even just all medicine, right? They're also all human like. You have those? Aha. Oh my gosh, I'm a doctor, but I'm a human. We forget that so much. And it's toxics like Neils, where he brings home that D p C story that he lives every day that is human or Esther.
When she's up there telling us all about how she loves Ellen and Oprah and she has this phone stuff out from under our chair, Esther. That was epic by the way. You know those, but
for those people who didn't attend 3 0 1, I have to like, I have to go in there. 'cause it was Yes, like it was epic. Like, so Dr. Kabi, she said, I'm, I have a Iranian and Persian back on.
She was hiding bombs under the chairs. Yeah, that's the, she's like, she's like, oh yeah. And also, you know, there's a sticker under one of your chairs, and whoever gets the sticker is the winner of an OB pap light or a spec light. And the reason I told you about my ethnic bomb, by the way, was I'm not, I'm like, I'm not installing bombs under your chair.
I was like, oh my God. Completely memorable moment. Like nothing to do with like anything about the cervix, but absolutely like rockstar. Dr. Kabi just got paid to say that, oh my God, like mic drop done. It was, I mean, you have all those things, right? You have talking about things that you actually know and love and make you who you are and you don't go to.
You know your C M E that we used to go to and have all these people be inspirational and tell them, tell little moments about themselves. You're like, alright, get this done so we can go out and skip a few lectures and play golf. Or you know, whatever it is, go hang out with our kids at the pool. It's probably one of the only lectures you actually attend.
The whole thing, right? Or not the, but the C M E and you know, the full day where you're like, oh, I really don't wanna go, but oh gosh, what do I do? You know? So that speaks enough about D P C that you wanna stay at the whole conference.
And I think that I would be hard pressed to find someone who went for the C M E.
Like, I mean, they may have gone for the C M E 'cause they had a certain amount of dollars left in their budget, and which conference do I attend? But I think that, At the root of it, it's 'cause I need to go to a D P C conference not 'cause how much c m e am I gonna get out of it? Like I have absolutely no idea how much c m e like.
I literally that that is not something that I personally take into consideration when I'm going to conferences because especially with D P C, it's like I just need to be around other people who are in our ecosystem. And I will tell you, like going back to the kudos given to the team who organized it. I was talking with Dr. Katie Lou, who was on Sunday. I am looking at the schedule now, and she was right before Neil's talk and she was doing she budgeting right? Or um, so she was
doing facing fears of, of starting a D B C practice. Yeah. And we were talking about how genius that was to. Especially 'cause it's, it was a one-on-one lecture to come in from, you know, these very first aha moments of attending your very first D P C summit to then having a doctor who's been in practice for many years, you know, speak about facing your fears about D P C.
Then, you know, for these people who are attending one-on-ones, to be thinking about, like, I've actually worked through this question like this weekend. Like yeah, it's so strategic. Like I think that there must've been people in that audience who were like literally having the self-talk of like, oh, you actually do know way more than you started three days ago or two days ago, you know?
And I think that that was a really great. Way to end the 1 0 1 specific lectures and that like, it's literally giving a person the, the freshest how to address those fears as they leave and go home. So I just, I had to say that. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a great way to end it. Other than sleeping, what, what have you done since you got back home from the summit?
Full disclosure, hanging out with my family. I planned ahead and, well, I had surgery that Friday before I. Summit week, so I was supposed to be taking it easy. So I, since the girl says the girl with stitches who's like, you get in the car and I'll lift your luggage into the car. And Brooke was like, geez, I wasn't thinking it was one of those Nebraska moments where, you know, if you've ever seen planes, trains, and automobiles and you're from the Midwest and rebirthed her first baby sideways.
Like that kind of, that kinda moment where it's like, oh, Marielle, jump in my Suburban. Let me throw this suitcase. Oh, that thing weighs like 80 pounds. You're over the limit. And I just pulled a stitch. Oh my goodness. But yeah, so I had planned ahead and I had a very light day Monday, Tuesday, so I had to see my newborn weight and color check from the baby.
I delivered that Tuesday morning before we left. I saw that Mom and babe. And then on Tuesday, today I did like three telehealth, but oh my gosh, I had like 275 mentions I had to go through. So I literally was just sitting next to my nurse today, going through them in between us chatting and talking about other stuff and trying to get infamil samples and everything else.
So we did a lot of housekeeping. I did a couple patient visits, but I tried to be with my kids. 'cause you know how that happens. Mm-hmm. Start to act out, you know, it's really about you and the fact that you left and were gone for five days enjoying all your friends. We, we hung out a lot. But tomorrow's a full day.
We have aesthetics clinic, we have D P C clinic, and then roll into Thursday and Friday the same. So how about you? What'd you do?
So I needed to see my kids. And so today that resulted in, Hey, I, yeah, like I texted you a picture of us because Asher and I, um, my five year old, I was like, Wait a minute. I really want fish tacos and the best fish tacos on the planet Earth are in Murphy's California.
And that's where Asher's going to his summer school program. So I'm like, Oh, how convenient Yvonne. Yeah, it was so convenient. I was like, miss Yvonne, is it okay if I like take him out early to go to lunch? Like I didn't even know what the rules are. I'm just like pulling up. You might
end up at sushi in Minneapolis, who knows?
Oh my god. You know it. But I will tell you, they do not have fish tacos at the sushi train next to the Hilton or wherever. Hyatt in in, uh, I'd be a little sketch. I don't know.
Oh my gosh. True. But um, yeah, we then we had ice cream and then we go, went to go find books and at the local bookstore, and then we came home to do Legos.
And so like, yeah, it was so, it was just like downtime, but downtime like you're saying with family is like totally what I needed. And that's another pro tip, like a lot of people were chattering about. Why did I schedule patients on my first weekday bar? Like one of the moms said, why did I schedule my kids' dentist appointment at eight 30?
I'm like, this is classic. You know, this is the kind of thing I do. I, I am that mom at the dentist appointments yesterday and they scheduled championship. Little league baseball. Oh my gosh. And I have two sons that are playing actively and I'm like sitting there in the four o'clock dentist appointment.
I'm like, oh, one of them's gotta be somewhere at 4 45 for the game. Can I run this one out and come back? And I'm like, thank God I live in a town of 6,000 people. 'cause they're like, Dr. Beck, now, if you could just sign the consents before you leave. Tend to treat. Oh, yeah. And I'll pay too, because I'll probably forget that when I come back.
So let's just get all the things done. But you know, I, that mom, whoever was, I cannot remember. She is not alone. I didn't schedule it at the beginning. I scheduled it at four, but I'm still that one running in and out, shuttling kids. Yeah. You know, um, yeah. That's, that's happening. That's real.
It totally is.
And you know, one thing I, I was glad about because, and clearly we have different patient populations in terms of sheer numbers of patients who are members. But what I will say is that I was very grateful that somehow some workflow somewhere is working and that we have the best nurse ever. Because I come back and I was like, I don't wanna check on my messages, don't check.
And I log in, I'm like, Oh my gosh. There's like six messages and oh my gosh, I can assign all of these. Like, I, I can, I don't have to actively engage, like none of the messages needed was one of those my, yeah, like I did not need my medical training to answer the messages, meaning medical training, thinking differentials, figuring out a plan, blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, oh yeah, I can dos without guilt. Oh my God, it was so good. So yes, I totally
like, Yeah. Well man, but I, I will say that, you know, Evaluating like wherever you are in your practice, especially if you're like, you know, thinking about your workflows, whether you're just opened or you know, you've been open for 10 years, like whatever it is.
But when you have moments like that where you're like, oh, uh, next time I will, you know, not I. Do this or I will do this, or whatever. Like my, the thing that I do is I go into, like, I do things on my iPhone calendar. Like I will say, you know, like D p C summit is literally from like June 15th to June 30th of next year.
So I purposefully don't. Plan things in that block of time so that I'm able to be more flexible. Yeah. But when it comes to workflows, same thing. That was a pro DP C tip right there. Pro dpc tip man, pro D P C. What? Sorry. Didn't need that, that song, but I, right. Took me back to the Hint summit where you were on stage singing.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. She sent me a video and my kids always ask to watch it again and again. So some days when we wanna hear fight song and a little bit of pumped. Henkel said, mom put Maryelle on, put on the phone. Girl, sister, the lady at the ice cream store today was like, can you just stop singing? Like literally I was singing, looking at the ice cream menu board and Asher was like, here dancing with me.
I'm like, this is Muffins song. And like the lady's like, I just need you to order so that I can get on with my day. Like I had, I had that attitude look and I was like, oh, excuse me, fight song as long and I will finish it and then I will order my ice cream. Thanks so much. But yeah, I so ironic that I was like, I'm awesome.
You shut your mouth. We're not talking about you right now. Oh my God. But you can't not when fight song comes on, man. Especially if you're a D P C doctor. Like that is one of the most, when I saw that on the menu of karaoke songs, I was like, Ooh, yes. That's what, so anyways, you, you have, you haven't heard it, you have to Google fight song right now.
But, um, yes. So yeah, I'm glad that, you know, we're, we're readjusting to our lives back home geographically, but I think that it's even, you know, Especially this like right after time, this is the time to like also reach out to those contacts that you've made so people's faces are fresh on your mind.
People's conversations are fresh on your mind. And so you can continue that because I will say that it's because, you know, keeping those conversations fresh that you, you build your little e even
though we can intermingle and all this stuff, like you, you do build your, your super close knit like group or niche of friends that.
Know, like I remember I was like six months in or nine months in, and I called um, Dr. Hailey Miller. And I was like, Haley supposed to be. And she's like, oh girl. Three months ago. Literally like, 'cause she, she was, you know, nine, six months or nine months, whatever the benchmark was, she was like, aha. Yeah. Is there exactly the same place as you were exactly like three months ago?
Keep crying, like, tell me all the things. Uh, and it was like, I'm normal. I'm normal, but it's, you know, entrepreneurship. Like we both know is, it's a rollercoaster, but it's, it's a different rollercoaster. Is this your plug of saying, don't shut off your d p c friends that Dr. You don't answer your phone for two months 'cause you're isolating.
Is this you saying, um, everyone should answer their phone? Yeah. Yeah, I think that that was your plug there. Alright, we're gonna, we're gonna roll into this menu here. Schedule. I gotta say a few things about this. So you were like me, you went to a lot of three oh ones, so, oh, I don't have a lot to say about some of these 1 0 1, 2 oh ones, but I, I did step into some of them here and there, and I just think in general, these topics are fabulous and gosh, Tammy.
Tammy, I was talking to her and she was, Telling me all about how they were blinded and we just went with topics and educational material and all of this of like who would would be speaking and gosh, I just love, you know what all they picked. Some of 'em are duplicates, you know, as far as some of the diagnoses, but people do things completely differently.
Right. You know, like there was our advanced clinical procedure one. Where I talked about joint injections, but then I went to Rob's, uh, fracture Orthopedic and he's talking about joint injections. Mm-hmm. And you know, even though it's a little bit of a crossover, we do things differently. Yep. That was great.
I love that. I also think that some of the, the topics, you know, like dementia and physical fitness, I mean, these are great, and then you can turn around and know exactly how to run your clinic. I mean, who, what, who does this? This is awesome. I had some of the best moments though, listening to some of these patient flow talks and.
Hearing how people bring patients into their clinic, like the order of how they do things. You know, like somebody might sit down and do a one-on-one and make sure all expectations are set. You know, other people are like, yeah, I'm not calling everybody, you know, and I love it. I love that because somewhere along the way, Um, it makes you think about what you're doing and it might just reassure you that I like what I'm doing 'cause I like how they're doing it too.
Or, you know, you might be like me and you're a thousand people in and you're like, Ooh, we better go back over some of these expectations. Mm-hmm. Not because my patients. Like suck or they, they can't follow all the rules or they don't have boundaries. Mostly because our practice has changed so much with every, say 200 people or adding in our PA or adding in new staff and how they do things.
Maybe some are texting, some are emailing. So now we have people not following text rules, you know, everything's always moving and so I loved, you know, some of the lines that people said over and over, like, it's never too late to make changes in your practice. Right. So those are some of those great things from that day one.
I just loved, you know, day one was great. How about day two? What what'd you think on that Saturday? Oh, that was a full day.
It was a full day. And I think that it was a reminder of how fast day one goes because it was like, oh my gosh, day two's already here. So I will say that, you know that, that kick
off with you on Saturday morning, man.
You came out with only one hour of sleep and you were just, oh man in everybody else done it. It
was so good. And you know, I, I, I get, I get it was, It was a, a, sorry, not sorry moment. A true sorry, not sorry moment. That it was like, well, you asked me to moderate at eight o'clock in the morning. First thing.
This is what you get. Thank you very much. Yeah. What you get. You don't throw up that what you get, man. But I, I, I loved that. And, and we were a well-oiled machine. We practiced beforehand because we wanted to make sure that we got in. The points we wanted to, when we were talking about a panel of boundaries, but also that we had time for questions.
And you know, it, it was really important I think, to talk about boundaries. Again, it was genius scheduling in my opinion, because it was like, okay, we're gonna talk about boundaries with all the stuff that you've now thought about from day one. Now we're gonna talk about how to, you know, honor yourself and re remember that if you're the doctor running the clinic, that you don't wanna be creating a clinic where you're gonna create burnout for yourself in whatever way, shape, or form that takes.
And so then going into the rest of the day, you know, talking about, I have to step back one second on yours. Liz Fisher up there, you know, with all those docs, and she's telling it from a different perspective. Mm-hmm. For her husband and her family. She got a little teary-eyed. She pulled at me a little bit too, just because, I mean, watching how much the people in your life.
Not just you are feeling pain. Yeah, yeah. You know, trying to figure out what to do and how to take care of patients on your terms. But watching her start to get teary-eyed over just the compassion for her husband and wanting him to have success in his own way, I. You know, that that's also what helped them set missions for their clinic on how are we going to run this clinic.
And I think that was inspirational too. And so that was good to have her on the panel and have a little bit of a difference there of the outside's view. So I, I enjoyed that. Yeah.
I'm really glad. And I agree. You know, the fact that she was a co-founder and she has an M B A under her belt and the fact that she's.
Experienced, you know, medicine from her husband's world of fee for service, and then being the one who read it in in medical economics about D P C and. Envisioning something better for herself, her husband, and their family. It's, it, it was absolutely inspirational and I think that, you know, that that emotion definitely comes from having stories of our own that we came to think about while she was talking, while all the speakers were talking Dr. Coray and Dr. Rob Ross, and Dr. Christina Gonzalez. But yeah, I, I, I think that that's again, another mark of like, this is not a regular doctor's conference. No. Yeah. And for me, I, I went into, after our, after our talk, I went up to Dr. Phil Hellman's lecture, and I'm like, I literally asked him, I was like, are you a D P C doctor?
Because I was there like, I've never heard of this cardiologist. Like he's an, and he was like, I totally forgot to introduce him. He still own it because he probably said, I, oh, well, yes I am, I am cardiology.
It, it was mind blowing. I told my husband, yeah, I told my husband. I was like, okay. Now we're like, this is like, I literally am obsessed with everything that he talked about.
And like you talked about when you talk about, or when you mentioned the joint injection coming from different perspectives. Yeah. He was followed up by a Gentilly. Mm-hmm. And he was talking about lifestyle from a totally different perspective. And this is, you know, after in day one, Dr. Ryan Newel was talking about lifestyle in a different perspective, like totally different perspectives of how to, like you're saying, incorporate lifestyle medicine.
Into your practice, not about lifestyle medicine. There was definitely some of that, but it was about to, it was then how to actually get it in the day-to-day, and I think that it was really great that Dr. Lesky also was in the 1 0 1 section, because people need to know what their options are, what their freedoms are when it comes to D P C in their state or restrictions because.
Especially if you're starting out, that's not always something like the person from South Dakota. I was like, you need to talk to people in your state because it's a new thing and I, I can speak for California, I cannot speak for South Dakota.
So yeah, that's why Tammy's was a great one to follow if no one has been to her.
Hers, make sure they watch it online when these all come out because she does a great job with hipaa, osha, Lea answering all those questions and what that looks like. I went to her lecture last year. Great job. Always good. And you can't be Esther's name at your cervix. I mean, come on that lecture. It just cracks me up.
Yeah. And like Laura Kenny was in there, um, you talked about for heon and preach what you practice social media. Phil is from Nebraska, so Woo Huskers, and he does a great job on social media. Sometimes I pull him up and just watch him, you know, do the ear piercing and all kinds of stuff. Who has time for all that?
I don't know. But I was at my parents. We threw my parents a 50th wedding anniversary in May. One of my friends from high school, her sister came up to me and she said, and this doesn't happen every day, right? And she's like, Amber, I just wanted to let you know that because of you having a D P C and they just had their first baby, she said, we looked up a D P C doctor next to us and we drive 45 minutes to see him and we just love him.
It's great. Like this is the way medicine should be, and I'm like, okay, you don't hear this every day. Right. That's awesome. You're impacting people upon people, upon people that you don't even know. People. It is great. It is great. So that's awesome. Yeah. Yep. And then you got your medication dispensing. You know, those talks are always good.
People have all the questions, you know, usually. Yeah, absolutely. She, you know, she just needs to write a book. That, that, is that a good answer? She just needs to write a book. Well,
I, I tell Dr. K Ryan all the time that people want to know. What she has to say and what her experiences from taking care of the patient she has from her family that she's talked about.
You know, it's, it's literally, you cannot, you, it's like, it's like reading about D B C and, and living and then talking about D B C. Like there's, you cannot, the passion and dedication that she has to serving her patients in the best way possible and, and. In her case, especially with mental health. Mm-hmm.
Which is so desperately needed by every single patient and every single person in this, in this
world. Oh. Especially after Covid, everybody. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And it, it was so interesting to hear, you know, the data that she had in her lectures, but also I, you know, her genius of using the Harry Potter.
Like, who do you think this character is? It really gave examples that were. Things that would stick in your head. And then she like, just kept on, kept on, kept on giving you like tips and pearls. And then when her slides were talking about specifically, like if a person like this comes to you, these are the diagnoses, or these are the, uh, these third form, right?
Diagnostic. Yeah. Like, you know, our, our, our a d d brains we're like, ah, okay. Not a big long paragraph. It's like, ding, ding, ding. Yep. And it was like, these are the forms that would be the, the highest yield for you to screen this type of patient. Like, if Haggard walks into my office, I know, blah, blah, blah.
Thank you to Dr. Kion. You know, like it was, it was incredible. And I will, I will back up there for a second though, when you're talking about like, Impacting people. And even just the, the example about sharing or about how that patient decided to go to a D P C doctor, Dr. Phil Bache, Dr. Nick Cro and his wife Nikki.
I had met them last year at the summit in Kansas City. But he said to me something that was very, very touching. And I, I wanna mention this because this is literally all of us. When we tell people about D P C, he said, oh, you know, you do, you, and you know, he was talking to me about the podcast, but he was like, you know it, it's great.
Like all the people you touch, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Yeah, I like, I am so appreciative when all of these doctors were coming up and saying like, it's because of you, your story of blah, blah, blah, that, you know, we heard about blah blah. And it's like, that's great, but, but. He said to me, no, but I'm not talking about the doctors.
I'm talking about all of the patients that each doctor takes care of. And so that's every single one of us. Like you have, yeah. Little goosebumps. Yeah. You have over a thousand patients who have moms and dads and babies and cousins and blah, blah, blah, like. That was so memorable and so touching. Um, that was my aha moment, you know, so I will of that funny world, because there was a few people on stage even this week that had said something like, oh, my parents are taken care of by this D P C doctor, whatever.
And it made me think, I was like, it's so wild, because those really, it does happen. Yeah, because no joke. I mean, hopefully not T M I, but I was in the ER early May and I was in there. No, this is just crazy. The ER doctor's coming to discharge me, she's like, oh, I looked at your imaging, blah, blah, blah. I'm gonna send you home follow up.
And then she comes back in the room and she said, oh, I'm sorry. I have to call a consult in because I just got a phone call from the radiologist, which apparently you take care of their parents. And he told me that I can't send you home without a consult. Oh, like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? I, I was out the door and I am not kidding you.
He told her she takes care of my patients. I can't let her go home without a consult first. And I was like, who does this? How does this happen? Classic working in traditional medicine for eight years before I went to D P C, and now I'm stuck in jail in the ER because they take care of this person's parents and they're worried about me, but.
It goes to show that your parent, your patients are worried about you too. You know, I was telling you about having to email mine and, and just let them know, okay, if I die in surgery, you know this is what's going on. 'cause I hadn't told anybody I was. Having anything and they're sending, I have cards at my house, I have emails back, I have people dropping things off.
You know, it is, it is a relationship. Definitely, you know, between both of us and, and all we impact and then how we impact each other. It's, it's amazing and I'm gonna throw it back in your face like a virtual pie, like end your D P C sister over here, like trying to text you and make sure you're okay because you also impact so many god dang people.
You know, throughout the years that you've been doing this. I am so grateful to know you and to call you my, my Casca sister because like literally, you know, I love you. The conversations that we've had over the years, like, you know, I was mentioning Dr. Haley Miller, same thing. Like there's conversations where talking to our D P C family really makes a difference when it comes to like getting through certain times.
Like how do you work through like losing a patient? How do you work through having to take time off? How do you work through blah, blah? It's like, Ask and someone will be able to talk
with you about it. Asking is so hard, but we are getting better about that. Right? We are getting better. But yeah, I know 'cause I was telling you before we got on the, on the podcast is that it's like a proud parent moment when I'm watching you talk to all these people at the conferences, because I can remember where I was sitting in my house when we were talking on the phone.
You're like, I have this idea. I know it's crazy because I don't even have. My direct primary care open yet, so I'm probably not the person. Right. And you're telling me all the why's and why nots, and I'm like, yep, sorry. Yep. You're doing it. Yep. Yeah. And then watching that grow and you work through those hardships of doing all those steps on your own and trying to figure out somebody to help you and.
I just love sitting there at those conferences, watching these people come up to you like giddy little kids and introduce themselves and I'm like, oh, I'm like the mom I get to watch. They're just like, totally, you know, enjoy all these moments. She's worked so hard for. So I mean it, there's so many different perspectives of these conferences, of these patient panels, of these clinics and yes, we are very much family.
These things are cool. They really are. So on that last day, family, you know, a Neil wraps up with his family and you know, not all of us have physicians in our family. Mm-hmm. Our parents. And to hear how he admires his father. But knows, Hey, he was never there. Yeah. But still, he admires him and everything he, he's been taught, but says, but I wanna do it differently.
Mm-hmm. You know, and I always tell him, I don't even know how he gets things done because for Pete's sake, I could never have my kids running in and out. Which he told me the funniest story, and I don't even know if I should air it, but his kids walk, one of the, his son walked in with something during a patient appointment the other day, and.
Neil was like, oh my gosh, this is embarrassing. And I just think it's so funny because that that's what would happen to me and that's why I'm like, no, you cannot come over during Workday. Mom cannot have this happen in a town of 6,000. But I just really enjoyed his talk. It it was phenomenal. And then you have your speaker town halls of starting growing.
Your strategies for success. You know, you had speak again, um, you have alternative medicine in there. And then you were talking about the facing fears, which totally resonated with people. And I was on the road by that time, but I'm watching the financial one from the road and that was great because. I mean, some people don't even have a financial advisor at this point.
Right. So, so that was good. And I didn't get to watch Tiffany and Jax, but I will when it comes out. Well, I guess I can't watch that one when it comes out. That's the bummer of this. Yeah. I think there's a bummer or a letdown in any of this it is that the three oh ones aren't taped. Well, I, I will
say that, that, that you hit on something that was very, it was like a, a bittersweet thing there because you were literally physically not in Minneapolis, but you were able to still attend, just like the people who were attending a hundred percent virtually were able to do.
But the fact that you were just able to like pivot. That's a really big win for this year's summit because, you know, like I was talking to somebody about, um, F M X and how it, you know, different states and different cities have different union rules, but like one of the dreams that I was talking to somebody about a, about A A F P F M X was the ability to, to podcast the lectures such that you could literally be like, Breastfeeding your baby in your hotel room and you're like, and I'm in lecture.
Like that is so empower, empowering. I didn't get to speak with Amy Walsh enough. She didn't get to come, you know, for very much. But, you know, usually she's up there speaking. She has great knowledge and I, I love hearing from her and I didn't even get to hang out with her, let alone hear her speak, but, I talked to her in the lobby as I was leaving, carrying like 15 bags and, uh, 'cause I packed my But you weren't supposed to with your stitches.
Oh my gosh. Right, right. And I'm talking to Amy and that is one thing she hit on. She's like, I loved it. She said, even if I wasn't in the, the actual speech or the actual session, she said she had her AirPods in the whole time listening to lectures even when she was out, just roaming around or trying to.
You know, get through whatever she was trying to, it doesn't matter, transportation or grabbing lunch. Like, she's like, I didn't miss one. I just had 'em in. Yeah. And, and I was like, you know what, that is genius. You know, she just kept going with the whole thing. She never missed a beat. So, yeah, I mean, the opportunities there endless, no matter where you're at.
That's what's funny about Phil is so Brooke, our receptionist and like office admin that came with us, she has known me since we were eight. We've been best friends forever and um, well we, we've known each other way longer, but best friends since eight and she's standing there watching Phil and I talk like hormones and different type of like medications and, and covid and what happened then and.
We just weren't stopping talking. We're just standing there in the hallway by the elevator and I keep telling him, my feet hurt. I gotta get out of these heels. And he just keeps talking all this medicine, and I'm like, oh, dang it. I'm gonna keep talking because I love talking with you. And we walk away and she's like, oh my gosh, my mind just exploded.
She's like watching you two talk. It's like, it is crazy. You just one right after another and Yeah. You know, we can debate back and forth in a very positive way because mm-hmm. We can hear each other, hear ideas, come back with other things in the whys of how we do things individually. But him and I just have a flow of being able to be like, okay, yeah, I totally get why you would do that, and thank you for that knowledge right there.
And then we throw it back and I, I totally agree. He is just, Vast, vast knowledge and just an easy person to hear, listen to. Mm-hmm. No, like literally that it was like med school in a good way. 'cause we all know, like those lectures who are like, oh no, they're talking today. Like, I'm gonna catch up on my sleep.
But I literally was like, I thought he was a cardiologist when he was just like a direct cardiologist, specifically because he was talking in a way that was super digestible, super detailed, super informative. Super helpful from when you return back home and you get your next, like cardio IQ in front of your face.
But I, I was blown away. Again, I, I can imagine the, the description that was blinded when his submission was looked at and, you know, chosen, but it, it, it must've been incredible because, That lecture was probably my favorite of all of them. In terms of the sheer knowledge that was there.
You mean the snoozing, here's my virtual pie.
No snoozing for you during that one.
Oh, no, no, no. I the, I really had a hard time post lecture. I'm post lunch because, I, I like sour cream, so it was very difficult for me. Like it was very difficult. That's me being transparent.
I dunno that sour cream puts anybody to sleep, but you maybe My son is going, my was dipping his cookie and sour cream and saying, mama, it tastes like a sour cookie.
And I was like, I, in my head I was like, I don't care. As long as you eat, like you eat whatever the heck you want, man. See, but you're my son. You love sun cream too. Yes. Well, with that, the, the amazing D B C summit is going to be missed and missed and missed until next year, and so did you hear It's in CBRA next year.
Oh my god.
I wish it were in Nebraska. Then we could go to the Henry Doyley Zoo and everyone could understand why. Mariel Success Zoo. Yeah. Or my clinic.
Her gorgeous. And you, if you go to the healthy human D P C socials, you can see some of these things. But we were joking that Dr. Auer has a whole zoo in her clinic. 'cause it's like this. I like animal print This.
I might not be PETA's friend, but I like animal print. I love it. Oh my goodness. But I'll be an interior designer in my next life.
Next one. I love it. Well, I, I just told Dr. Christina DOL that she should be an interior designer, and she said, well, people ask me all the time if I can design their space, and so I need their measurements of their rooms, and then I will help them. But I said, you also need to get paid for that so you can totally do, you know, a, a side job of being a interior designer.
Literally, I just said that, oh my God.
To being a D P C doctor. Well, I'm telling you what, chip and Joanna Gaines, they better watch out 'cause Jeremy and I got this in the bag after three clinics. Oh man. But you can guarantee if we're going to the great big state of Texas, maybe Yes. I'm gonna stop through Waco on the way by, go to Magnolia.
Okay, so this is, this is me talking out loud, but, okay. So since D P C summit is two weeks on my calendar in June, like this is the type of stuff I think about like, okay, what can we do? We're gonna go Magnolia with you guys. Yeah. Literally. And fan girl over Joanna games.
Did you just send the podcast to Joanna?
So she shows up to eat all of us DPC docs. Oh, she better have a DPC doc for her. She better have with, with all the DPCs in fricking Texas. She better have a DPC doc. And, and it better be Neil Douglas because with his pink farmhouse, she and him, they would be on that same cord. It it would just work. Yeah, it would be it.
Pink ship. Shiplap. Farmhouse by the time she's done with it. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. We bed. It's 10 45 Nebraska time. I know. It's crazy. Crazy. Well, I love you lots and I hope that people just got some fun out of this podcast and just some inspiration to put the dates the last two weeks in June on their calendar.
And if you had those nagging thoughts about like, oh, I wish I would've gotten. That's fine. Have those nagging thoughts, but plan for 2024 and with that my, and maybe two weeks out, a couple months from now, so you can spend time watching those one-on-ones, two oh ones. 'cause you know, it never happens.
Super smart. Super, super smart. I love that you said that. So thank you for, for mentioning. Yeah. 'cause we always, oh, I'll go back and watch it. But for those that didn't come, maybe that hopefully would be a pearl for this year, is that if you didn't make it, block that out, just like you're gonna block out sometime in June.
So then that way you actually do a little C M E. Yeah. Or not C M E, whatever, learning what if? All of the above. Yep.
Well, from ca to your state, wherever you may be. Goodnight. Good luck.
See you later.
Peace out. Peace.
Next week as I'll be coming back from Coem, Cing Health Rosetta's Rosetta Fest, we'll be bringing a special episode where Dr. Bradley Block host of the Physician's Guide to Doctoring podcast asks me about what does D P C mean to me, and why am I so passionate about this movement of physician-led care?
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If you're wanting to continue learning more about D P C. In the meantime, check out DPC news.com. Until next week, this is Marielle conception.
*Transcript generated by AI so please forgive errors.