We've all encountered behavioral health cases that seem to evade everyone's best efforts. Even more likely is that we've treated patients as first degree connections of such cases. When we're truly focused on above and below the neck medicine as two halves of the same whole, there is a different sense of responsibility to help even when our patient might not be the one with the primary illness.
My guest on this exceptional episode is Diana Clark, JD, MA, Chief of Clinical Operations with O'Connor Professional Group. Diana eloquently shares her journey into concierge care that originated with a front row seat to her physician father, the late and distinguished Dr. Leon Rosenberg, suffering through a long battle with bipolar disorder. Diana witnessed the severe ripples unaddressed mental illness sends through a family and has since, through efforts with O'Connor Professional Group, advanced her life's work to help the patients, families, and support networks who all suffer from the ravages of sub-optimally managed mental health issues get the needed support they all deserve.
One sage piece of advice offered in this episode is to ask your patients what their coping strategies are for the most difficult times in their lives. This episode has a lesson for everyone to learn.

Please call 988 if you or someone you know is struggling with suicide or emotional distress. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 200+ crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 9-8-8. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

One of the core tenants of every concierge medicine practice is prioritizing prevention over treatment. Getting in front of chronic illness before it becomes such creates a better patient experience, produces better outcomes, and ultimately reduces the overall costs for the entire healthcare system. The leading cause of death in the United States is still heart disease. Yes, even in the face of a pandemic, heart disease outpaced COVID-19 deaths by more than two-fold in 2020. My guest on this episode is the Founder and CEO of Cleerly Dr. Jim Min. Cleerly has created a predictive, personalized, and tracked approach to measure atherosclerosis, the true predictor of heart attacks.
In this episode, Dr. Min, a prolific contributor to the medical literature and board-certified cardiologist, shares his personal journey through the trenches of traditional medicine where the primary method for assessing heart attack risk isn't measuring actual disease itself but relying on surrogate markers. Jim's efforts through Cleerly aim to remedy this approach and truly give physicians and patients actual assessments of disease above and beyond just the status quo surrogate markers from the past. Whether you're a concierge physician or a patient of one, you will surely enjoy this episode.

Having difficulty deciding if a DPC or more of a concierge model is the right fit for you? My guests on this episode, Dr. Joel Bessmer and his son Ryne Bessmer, operate both a DPC and a concierge practice in Omaha, Nebraska. Ryne and Joel share their insights and experience running their practices and how they reach different audiences with a shared purpose. Dr. Bessmer's experience in membership-based medicine, or as he calls is relationship-based medicine, is deep and varied originating back to 2007 in a model under the University of Nebraska Medical Center's umbrella; he has since flourished in this space and is a leading voice in the industry.
Ryne and Dr. Bessmer also co-host a podcast titled Beyond the Script that educates healthcare consumers on complex medical topics by simplifying them in lay language. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to co-host, co-promote, and cross pollinate with both of our audiences.
This episode is equal parts enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring. The firsthand experiences shared in this episode are well worth the listen for audiences of all walks of life. Enjoy!