How To Launch A Direct Primary Care Practice Right Out of Residency With Dr. Kenneth Qiu

🎙️ Welcome back to another exciting episode of The Physicians and Properties Podcast with host, Dr. Alex Schloe.

💡 What if the solution to America’s broken healthcare system isn’t more insurance—but doctors reclaiming the patient relationship through Direct Primary Care?

In this episode, Dr. Schloe is joined by Dr. Kenneth Qiu—a family physician, med school friend, and leader in the Direct Primary Care (DPC) movement. Right out of residency, Dr. Qiu skipped the traditional employed model and built his own practice, Eudoc, which has now grown to four physicians across two clinics in Richmond, Virginia.

From balancing student debt while starting a business, to convincing patients that DPC is real, to advising healthcare leaders on policy and finance, Dr. Qiu shares why DPC is both a personal calling and a scalable solution for the future of primary care.

💥 What you’ll learn:

✔️ How Dr. Qiu went straight from residency to founding a DPC clinic
 ✔️ The financial and marketing challenges of launching with no patients and no safety net
 ✔️ Why word-of-mouth and patient experience are the strongest growth strategies
 ✔️ Misconceptions about DPC—and why it’s not just for the wealthy
 ✔️ How employers are using DPC to save money and improve employee health
 ✔️ Where the DPC movement is headed in the next 5–10 years

🔥 Key Takeaways:

✔️ Direct Primary Care gives physicians freedom to focus on relationships, not paperwork
 ✔️ Entrepreneurship in medicine is possible—even with debt and little business training
 ✔️ The DPC community is collaborative, supportive, and growing fast
 ✔️ Employers and policymakers are beginning to recognize DPC as a real solution
 ✔️ Doctors don’t have to wait until mid-career burnout—DPC is an option right out of training

If you are a physician tired of the system and looking for a model that restores meaning, time, and autonomy—while still being financially sustainable—this episode is for you.

🔗 Connect with Dr. Kenneth Qiu:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

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Transcript

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: I mentioned this refugee kind of mentality before where people are running away from something. I think we're in a, in a generation now where. A lot of us in the DPC space, especially those of us who are younger are trying to build something so that we have the freedom to do something right, freedom to take care of our patients, freedom, to help them navigate and really do a good job moving forward.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast, the show where we teach you how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want. Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. Now here's your host, Dr. Alex Slo.

Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Physicians and Properties podcast. I am so excited to have a med school friend on the podcast today, Dr. Kenneth Q It is awesome to reconnect. He is a family physician, a leader in the direct primary care movement, and someone who believes that primary care exists.

Best outside of insurance and hospital systems. After he finished residency, he went straight into building his own direct primary care practice, which is a bold move that gave him the freedom to practice medicine the way that it was meant to be practiced with time, relationships, and a focus on patient care over paperwork beyond his practice.

Dr. Qiu advises healthcare leaders in policy, finance and tech. And he is helping to shape the future of healthcare through the lens of primary care. I'm excited to dive more into his journey and explore what direct primary care really means for doctors, patients, and the system as a whole. Dr. Qiu Good to have you on the podcast, man.

How are things going?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Good. It's good to see you again and great to catch

up. 

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely, man. It is, it is been a while. It is really cool really cool to have folks on the podcast that graduated from, from B-C-U-M-C-V, and it's, it's awesome just to see what folks are doing and you are doing big things. And so really excited to reconnect with you here. Let's just jump straight into it.

Right after residency, you launched your direct primary care practice. What was that like for you? What led you to take that leap instead of falling more of the traditional private practice route?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, so I learned about Direct Primary Care as a fourth year med student. It was one of the decisions that led me to choose family medicine. So. By the time I had finished residency, I had already talked to at least a hundred DPCs across the country, visited dozens. And you know, I was just sold.

Part of how I got into direct primary care was even in med school. You know, I ran several student organizations and did some work with the medical society. And so I was just trying to educate myself about the healthcare system even then while learning medicine. And everywhere I turned it seemed to be like. This is bad. This is broken. There's no hope. We don't know what to do. And then fourth year in med school, I made it to the DPC summit that happened to be nearby in Washington DC that year. And the attitude was so different. It was, this is how we're fixing it, this is what we're doing, this is how you can solve this problem, that problem. And I, I think I just got caught up in that energy and I started reaching out to people learning more about it. You know, it really, at, even, even at that time, 2017 felt like something big was about to happen. And so when I started my practice in July of 21, it was kind of natural. I, I couldn't think of doing anything else.

 And I guess, you know, it, it is hard, right? Because you come out with debt, you gotta make your own income, you start a business and you gotta spend. And so I worked. Full-time at Urgent Care for a while while ramping up my patients. But it's been rewarding. The movement's growing. The model's growing and a lot of people love it.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: And you know, we're four doctors now across two clinics, so I've been having a great time and have no regrets doing it.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That is awesome. Yeah. I remember you and some of our friends going to Capitol Hill when we were in med school and chatting, you know, with, so state governments there and you know, talking about policy and those sorts of things, was that when you kind of first got exposed to direct primary care or was that when you really realized, man, healthcare is broken and there's gotta be another way?

Or maybe a bit of both?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, a a little bit of both. So it was nice 'cause we went to school right across the street from the Capitol, so it's pretty

easy to just go over there for the white coat days and all of that. I think policy is just a piece of the puzzle, right? Healthcare in general is kind of a blind man and elephant problem, right?

Everybody is in their little silos and everybody is like touching their thing and one person says it's a trunk, another person says it's rope, so on and so forth. And that's why even from an early stage I was doing the white coats on call, but I was also engaging like. The CEO of VCU you know, a lot of the, the business people, policy clinicians, just trying to get as many stakeholders as possible to really see the picture.

And again, it was a landscape of stuff doesn't work, it's broken forever. And then DPC was, I think that was my first taste of entrepreneurship really, because all these people, what made them different was their entrepreneurs. And I'm sure you know as you're one entrepreneurs are people who are. Chronic problem solvers, right? We like to see opportunity in what's broken rather than just kind of sit and wallow in it. And so I think that's what really drew me into the community.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. I feel you there. I am definitely a problem solver, but also a visionary and try have way too many ideas and I think that's that's part of entrepreneurship as well. And then figuring out, hey, which of these ideas. Can I implement which of these ideas are actually gonna make a difference and, and, and change the way things are done?

 And I think direct primary care is definitely a path that does that and, and is certainly a step in the right direction of how primary care should be and really how our healthcare system as a whole should be. Let's talk a little bit more about those early days. So what challenges did you face initially and what kept you moving forward in terms of your practice?

Dr. Alex Schloe: Definitely difficult, especially at the time that you started in 2021. I feel like the, the kind of wave of direct primary care was just getting started around that timeframe.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah. I think that there was definitely a lot of activity around 2013 to to 2017, and you're right, we were still early. I think we were. Probably the third DPC practice in the Richmond area at the time. And there's, gosh, like seven or eight of 'em now. It's pretty

wild how they've all spreaded everywhere. But I think, like I mentioned before, you know, you come out with med med school debt you have to spend money on the business and then. We were, so, I actually started with a friend of mine from residency, Dr. Mariana Keener. And she's been awesome. In general. Like when people are starting VPCs, it's, I wouldn't say recommended, but the ones that where you have somebody else start with you, whether it's a friend, a spouse you know, whether it's another physician or an office manager, it just makes things so much easier and better when you can share the load.

'cause it's, it's hard when you're starting out and so. We started as new doctors with a new model in the new town. Didn't know anybody. And so the ramp up was, was slow. You, you hear in the community how long it takes to get to a hundred. On average it takes about a year, give or take. You know, if you come from somewhere nearby in the system, if you have a lot of recognition, it's fast.

But if you're new. It's a slow ramp and it was a slow ramp for us, especially since we were trying to do this thing, and both of us were working full-time at urgent care. So I think patient acquisition starting out was the hardest thing. Balancing finances and really just working two full-time jobs to get the, get the thing up and running. I.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. That would be incredibly difficult. What were some things that you guys figured out from maybe a marketing perspective or the patient acquisition perspective that was really helpful for you to grow?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: I think from marketing the, the key is word of mouth. And this was something I didn't know was like an act. I, I always thought it was something passive that just happened, right? But I was talking to a business person and they talked about word of mouth strategy. And so all that means is just making it easy for people to refer to you. There's the, the more passive easy stuff, which is like create a great experience. Early days, you really bend over backwards for your, your first few members and, and go above and beyond. We haven't really strayed too much from that in terms of exceptionalism and really being there for, for patients when they need it. But you really kind of do as much as you can and then actively, some things to be more mindful of are like. When patients would finish their first visit, we'd send them out with brochures, right? Just say, Hey, if you like this, we're new here. Tell three people you care about about us. And that helped.

And then since then, you know, we have all sorts of just random swag that we give out just to be top of mind for people. The online stuff didn't really work so much for us. You know, we were in social media. Neither of us were very good at social. Our social's not great. We did some Google, which led to just.

Wrong phone numbers and nothing. Facebook ads recently have been helpful but we're just trying that. So our growth is pretty much just, you know, some local community networking that I did early on. And then once you hit that a hundred patient mark, it's just snowballs 'cause everybody starts talking about you.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I feel like direct Primary Care, you can provide such an exceptional experience that people will, you know, when they, when they first hear about Direct Primary Care, they're like, this can't be real. Right? And then they go and experience and they're like, wow, this is amazing. And then they want to tell folks about it.

I mean, the practice I'm at now, Alpen Glow direct Primary Care, you know. That's the same thing for them. Like it's just largely been word of mouth. 'cause it's like, hey, this is such a different model and such a refreshing take to medicine. And that's how they've been growing. And so it's just really, really cool to see that.

And it's wild to me how many people have no idea what direct primary care is. And, you know, can't even fathom that it's, it's a thing. And you know, I'm talking to people all the time about it and they're like, what? This is, that's real, that's an option. I don't understand. What are some things that you have kind of honed or learned in terms of describing what Direct Primary care is and the value that that provides?

Is there, you know, I guess what you kind of elevator pitch for Direct Primary care.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, I think there, there's the couple usual boilerplate talking points we use where it's like, oh, you don't use your car insurance for oil and oil changes or filling up gas. Otherwise your oil chain's gonna be $3,000 in out of network. Right. There's the idea of, you know, more so actually Costco than Netflix because, you know, Costco, you come in and then you, you have all this stuff that's brought to you at the best prices, right?

Because we're navigating meds, we're navigating labs, imaging all this stuff for our patients. So it's a little bit of Netflix, a little bit of Costco. And recently I've been trying to. Teach myself how to be better about selling the, the feeling rather than the features. Right? That's pretty basic advertising 1 0 1. ' cause when you start out, when I started out, I would go to people, I'm like, oh yeah, you know, we do this thing, it's a monthly subscription. You get unlimited visits, they're 30 minutes long, you can text, blah, blah, blah. We do laps. And then, you know, you watch their eyes glaze over and you don't know what to do about it. So now I, I'm more so focused on just saying. Look, the system's broken. We're trying to take really good care of you. Insurance makes things pretty complicated for both you and us. And here we just don't accept insurance. It's low monthly rate just to cover everything. No copays, no office visit fees, nothing.

We wanna keep things predictable. We want you to be able to access us when you need it, and our end goal is just to have a direct relationship with you and take really good care of you. And then if they want any more details, you know, they can ask.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. That's, that's beautiful. Yeah. Selling that story, selling that experience is something that I'm definitely learning. 'cause you're right, like they, they get hit with all those cool features and things of direct primary care and it's almost overwhelming It. How awesome it is that it doesn't even seem real.

And you know, and then there's always that, well, I have insurance, and then people don't understand that like, Hey, you may have a high deductible insurance plan. Direct primary care is still an incredible opportunity, still a great value for you regardless of insurance. I mean, I. I figured that out, just navigating insurance as I transition out of the air force for my family and I'm like, this is crazy how much it would cost for this really terrible high deductible health plan where there's no access to care when I could, you know, do a different model or do direct primary care with a health share or something else along those lines.

So it's so interesting how much confusion there is around insurance and just honestly how terrible it is and how terrible of a deal it is.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, I think the other thing I wanted to mention is concierge, because a lot of people they hear like, oh, really good service. You know, all this crazy access. They're like, oh, you're concierge care. This is where there's some people in the community who use concierge in their marketing, but it, it's a hill I just to die on.

The way I define concierge is membership plus insurance. So historically, the vast majority of them will double dip. If you see a higher monthly membership that doesn't take insurance, I tend to call that like executive DPC because technically it's still insurance free. And so concierge.

They'll sell you bells and whistles and all this stuff to justify their fee, whereas we just care a lot about just relationships and navigating the health system for our patients. A lot of that includes education on, you know, different types of insurance or alternative plans. What a high deductible means.

HSA I'll kind of jump the gun a little bit. You know, OB three the one big beautiful bill act. There is a provision in there for DPC practices where HSAs are officially compatible with DPC, so you can have a high deductible plan fund an HSA, and then use those HSAs dollars for your DPC memberships if you want, which is huge, right?

That's almost equivalent of like two and a half free months if you do that, depending on your tax bracket.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's amazing that, that that's the case. And I, I don't know why it took so long for HSAs to be able to be used since you can use 'em for all kinds of other things like wearable, you know, electronic health devices and so forth as well. So yeah, super excited about that. Dr. Qiu, what are some.

Misconceptions that doctors may have about DPC specifically, like think back to your time in residency, what are some things that might keep a family Med resident from considering starting or joining a DPC practice?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: IWI wouldn't say there, so, okay. There, there's two categories. I think as far as

misconceptions go, a lot of it comes from maybe older doctors or academics who see this as. Something where doctors who just want more money, leave the system and do it you know, poor people can't access it. You're only serving the healthy, young, rich people.

And the other thing is worsening the doctor shortage, right? Because we're going from panels of 2,500 down to, you know, like 400, 600. Those are all very complicated topics that I could go into depth, but we're not going to do that today. In short DPC. It takes care of a lot of underserved populations who aren't getting good care or any care at all from the system, right?

The people who use the ER as the front door now have primary care who are controlling things. These small businesses who can't afford anything else helping those out. And then as far as the shortage. That's a little more complicated topic just because there are a lot of different factors, people who would be quitting the workforce, who are staying in more students who are now interested in the primary care field.

And then as the model evolves, you know, how can we maybe leverage more of a care team to take care of more people over time? And none of that has been solved yet. So it's more complicated as far as people joining or starting one. I wouldn't say it's misconception so much as the financial realities, right?

Debt is the main thing and then business know-how. So whenever people are hesitant it is one or the other, or both. Yeah, the, the golden handcuffs are very real. You know, you got your sign-on bonus, you got your stay with us bonus. And then of course the system currently still pays. A lot more. And then even if you have saved up a nest egg, it's like, okay, I've never started a business.

How do I file an LLC? You know, how do I make a website? What do I do for marketing? And then all these things that we're not trained or taught to do, you know, how do you do that? So I actually just did a, a big survey. The, the peak age for having a DPC right now is age 40. When people have saved enough, they're frustrated, and then they get going.

And then from the business standpoint, the direct primary Care Alliance, other organizations, man, there's so much information out there right now between the conferences, podcasts, workshops, whatever to help you start. It's never been easier to start a practice as it is today.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I feel like too the, the DPC community is so collaborative and understanding of like, hey, there, there's such a massive need and we need more and more of these DPC practices. And there's so much demand and not nearly enough supply that like, it's it that that competition's not really there. Like everyone ever talked to the DPC space is all about, Hey, how can I help you grow your business?

Or what problems do you have and how can we work through this together? And it's just a really collaborative environment and community, which, which is awesome.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, that's right. It's a little bit of refugee camp energy, right? Because everyone has left the system that they're all burnt out and they're like, gosh, I, I remember when I was there. Let me help you come into this tent. We'll get you, we'll get you fed, clothed, and help you start up.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's a great analogy. I, I love that. Well, you mentioned that starting a practice that's very entrepreneurial. How did you approach building the business side of DPC? How did you learn how to start a practice? How did you learn to grow your practice? Anything in particular that stands out?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, just talking to a lot of people. Like you just mentioned, the DPC community is very friendly. We have a lot of online forums. I reached out to people in my backyard. There was a couple that was in the class above me in residency. They started the year before me 'cause they graduated a year early. So when I was launching I really leaned on their one year of experience to to see, and then again, nationally just. Knowing a lot of DPC practices all over the country, asking them how to do things and never feeling like I was too good to ask a very basic, dumb question. I like asking dumb questions. And yeah, just, just, you know, the, the wisdom of the masses is what really helped. Yeah.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. I love being the dumbest person in the room you know, from, from med school to now still am so it's good. That's awesome. So I know you also kind of advise in the policy finance tech side of medicine. What are some trends that you're seeing in those spaces and, and kind of how do you see direct primary care fitting into the broader healthcare landscape over the next five to 10 years?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Wow. Big question. 

Dr. Alex Schloe: I should have prepped you on that one.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah. So there, there's a couple of different things happening. So as far as like independent DPCs, those are popping up so fast, like unbelievably quick. When I was, when I learned about DPC 2017 in the Richmond area, there was one practice. Today there's like. I don't know, seven, eight, maybe.

And all the ones that are established are still going. Several of us are adding new docs, adding new locations. Like it, it's picking up from an individual standpoint. And I think nationally that's been growing as well. So the individual practices are doing well, continuing to grow. Then you kind of get into the. I call 'em like the, the bigger networks or, or multi-location groups. They're still, I could probably count 'em on, you know, both hands, how many there are, but they got big because when you go direct, there's three ways that healthcare is financed by the individual, by businesses, and by government. Businesses cover 50% of Americans government about the third and a third, and then 20% individual. And so you start with small businesses who you know, they'll start with a CEO. They're like, this is really cool. Can I sign on my five employees? A lot of manufacturing, construction, those types. And then you're like, yeah, and then you start finding more, you know, small business CEOs and they join and they talk, and then all of a sudden now you're in the kind of 50 to a hundred employee range, and that creates a whole separate. S series of challenges and opportunities and what these larger DPC groups have figured out is how to work with these large employers when it comes to care navigation, when it comes to some data collection. Really learning their kind of cycle, hr understanding level funded, self-funded plans. And that's, that's also growing really fast as employers are struggling.

You know, the premiums keep going up. In this country, once you become successful enough as a business, you get to become an insurance company. That is the unfortunate reality. And as their costs are going up and the brokers are telling them, well, there's nothing we can do, 20% increase premiums, whatever they're learning to direct contract with direct primary care practices.

And in doing so, not only are their premiums not going up, they end up saving money year over year. And so that's creating some serious tailwinds for the movement and because. The direct primary care groups aren't big enough. They'll kind of subcontract. With the independents. And so the, the small independent practices, the one or two clinics also benefit from the interest in employers because now they're getting employees funneled to them through these kinda larger, larger groups.

And yeah, there's a lot of interest in the business space. And then government, you know, this administration through whatever they're doing they, they do have DPC on their minds. RFK talked about it in his testimony. There's interest and I think we are just trying to figure out exactly how this is going to play out. The HSA win was a big one for us. That's gonna empower a lot more people to, to access us a lot more employee employers to build out truly high deductible insurance plans and sponsor DPC memberships. So we make insurance catastrophic again, while providing good care. And I think it, you know, when it comes to Medicaid, Medicare, there's still a lot more discussion to be had and, and a lot more thoughtful people need to come together to figure out how to make it work properly.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Man, that was an amazing answer. Yeah, I, I completely agree. I was just doing some reading and I think it was like 53% of folks that are in direct primary care, employer based, 53% less ER visits, absenteeism drops dramatically, right? 'cause access is so much better instead of. Going and waiting to see the doctor.

You know, for two to three hours you're, it's a lot quicker or it's virtual and you're just, folks are returning to work faster. So there's like so many benefits for the employer. Not to mention the cost savings, which I think in Colorado was like 24 to 30% cost savings for the. Employer to do a you know, to sponsor DPC and do either high deductible health plan or a health share.

 So just really, really interesting and it's really cool to see how this is starting to play out. And it really exciting obviously for, for both of us in the DPC space to see how that, how that lands. I think, man, I think it's gonna be awesome. I think the next five to 10 years are gonna be crazy to look back on and see.

 I think something really has to change in the healthcare system, and we could talk for many hours about that in terms of what the healthcare system in America looks like in the future if things don't change. But I think direct primary care is a breath of fresh air in the right direction. So really excited about that.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, that's right. I think sometimes about the Freakonomics, I think it, it's like chapter one where they say everybody's walking to the subway one way, and then there's like construction. In and people find different ways. And when the construction goes away, people find that you know, they found faster routes. I think DPC is a little bit of a shock to the system as well, because it's just like. We're just not going to do this anymore. People are like, what do you mean you're not going to do insurance? That's just like how things are done. We're like, nah. And then people start finding new ways and that's we're, we're building an ecosystem, right?

I mentioned this refugee kind of mentality before where people are running away from something. I think we're in a, in a generation now where. A lot of us in the DPC space, especially those of us who are younger are trying to build something so that we have the freedom to do something right, freedom to take care of our patients, freedom, to help them navigate and really do a good job moving forward.

And so we're, yeah, we're looking to, to build now in this kind of new land and create a, a new, new standard of care.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Completely agree. So multiple locations. Now for you, when you went from one to two locations, was there like a specific metric you were trying to hit? If you're like, Hey, once we hit this many patients, we're gonna open another location, or was it provider base? Like, Hey, you had a, a provider in mind, who is gonna start that new location for you?

What did that look like in terms of deciding to start a new, new location?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, so my initial practice, it's a suburb of Richmond called Midlothian, which is south of the river. And then one of my buddies wanted to join me, and this was this past October. He was like, let me come work for you. I was like, I don't have the bandwidth right now. He's like, doesn't matter, I'm doing it.

And he worked at a fee for service north of the river, kind of in the west end. And so, you know, you know this 'cause you went to school in Richmond, but people north of the river don't go south of the river. That's just how it goes. And also the space I had in Midlothian really could support two not really three full people.

 So I was like, all right, there's opportunity here. I know he's gonna do well, so. Found a space up north of the river, plopped him right in. And sure enough, tons of people followed him. I mentioned it took some time for us to build up being new doctors, new model, new place. But he was, he only worked there a year.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: He brought in like 300 some pa. He, he hit 300 within six months. The bottleneck was just how fast he could onboard people. It got to a point where I saw him approaching burnout. I was like, all right, we got pulled back. We gotta chill out a little bit. You know, this has to be sustainable for the long run.

But he did well. And then just by sheer luck, another one of my friends from residency reached out just a couple months later and was like, Hey. Well, he had listened to another podcast I was on like three years ago, and I was like, why are you listening to this? He's like, I hate my job. I hate everything.

You know, I, I wake up and I get a knot in my stomach, just dreading the day. And he's like, I don't know how to start business. I don't know how any of this works. I was like, you wanna just come work for me? He's like, you let me do that, I's like, yeah, come on in. So I had a, a, a two doctor space essentially on the west end, and we were just gonna kind of. Lose money on the back half of it. Not lose money, but you know, just pay extra. And we got lucky. He just a couple months in now he's there. And seeing patients and building up not nearly as fast as my third guy, but a lot faster than me and Dr. Keener did at the beginning. So we're doing well and, and growing.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome man. What's next for you guys?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, that's a good question. We'll see. I mean, the things we're doing, we're actually a little behind, but I'm glad we're finally doing it. So we have dispensing now. So we just launched dispensing in our Western location and should be up and running by the end of the month in our Midlothian location. I mean, we do, we have a partnership with a gym where you actually get discounts on both the gym membership and our membership if you join both. Just to encourage people to, to exercise, you know, walk to talk. And I pay for everybody in our clinic to, to join that gym. So we're also living out what, you know, living out what we preach and, the other thing I guess that's on the horizon is trying to get some third years, now that we have enough patients I'd like to have some med students because I want to teach them how to practice good primary care. I don't want their experience to be just running from room to room and with a burnt out doc talking about codes. Right? I want them to experience what it's like to, to message patients. Learn async virtual care. You gotta learn how to do that as a doctor now, right? Like, not everything's gonna be, in-person visits learn how to do some population health when you have the, the time to just kind of look through numbers. Now, I do want to have enough experiences for them in person. 'cause as you know, third year it's important to just see the pathology. And I actually wanna build out basically a really super discounted membership. Where we have like, some sort of application so people can come in and work with the, the med students.

But yeah, that's, that's one thing that I've been thinking a lot about. I would like to figure out how to integrate, like physical therapy, mental health but those are all kind of dreams right now that I, I'm thinking about. Yeah, and then I mentioned the employer space. We're trying to, we continually talk to, to employers and try to, you know, just educate employers more about what their options are in healthcare and how we can take care of their employees better. So those are just off the top of my head, some of the things that I, I've been thinking about.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, you're gonna be busy. A lot of, lot of awesome things, man. Yeah, that is cool. Kenneth, what's I guess if you had to kind of wrap up how direct Primary Care has allowed you to be the family physician that you want to be, how would you answer that?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: So I would say it is allowed me to, we, we all have only so much time in a day and we can only think about so many things. And as business people, we are trying to optimize for things, right. And I would say direct primary care. Instead of running a business where I'm constantly thinking about collections, about which codes, code, maximization, throughput, those things, metrics that don't matter. Like, I just kind of rattled off the things that I'm thinking about. How, how do I educate the future? How do patients have a much better seamless experience? How can I better help them navigate across the health system when they have to go, when they actually have to go to specialists? Is there a way that I can do better follow up?

How do we schedule messages to be more proactive with patients? You know, what are ways that we can bring more value, like dispensing where our meds are cheaper than. Mark Cuban's cost plus cheaper than GoodRx and they get to leave their you know, leave from the visit with bag in hand. So getting to focus on the right things has been super rewarding.

And when patients run into problems that are kind of more systemic, I get to think about like, okay, why do we do this this way? How can we, our practice kind of navigate around it or, or do it better? So I think just getting to focus on the right things has been really rewarding.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome. Yeah, I was listening to a podcast called Founders, which is about different entrepreneurs and CEOs. It's really, really good. And I was thinking about, as you were mentioning that the episode that was recently done on Elon Musk and, you know, if you would just walk around and be like, delete, delete, delete, you know, anything that that could be deleted was deleted.

And I think Direct Primary Care does a good job at that. And there's still definitely a ways to go, but we delete a lot of those. Things that are completely unnecessary in healthcare and streamline that experience and provide way better care. So man, I love it. That is awesome. Well, Kenneth, where can folks reach out to you if they want to know more, if they wanna follow along on your journey?

Is there someplace they could reach out and connect with you?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, I, I mostly just post on LinkedIn. Now I call it millennial Facebook. Right? We all got jobs and we like to post about our jobs. So yeah, pretty active on LinkedIn. And then the DPC conference circuit or any, usually some of the, the bigger primary care conferences I'll be there. So those are probably the. The two ways that you can find me,

or if you're in Richmond, Virginia, feel free to reach out.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that's what I was gonna, that's what I was gonna ask. What's the name of your clinic for folks that are in the Richmond area that are listening to this?

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, so my practice, this name is too clever for its own good. You know,

rule number one of marketing is have to explain your, your practice name every time. It's called, it's called uoc. It's spelled E-U-D-O-C. The idea is it comes from the Greek prefix U, right? So state of good wellbeing U glycemic thyroid.

Things we use in medicine a lot. And then doc for doctor so the good doctor or, you know, doing medicine the way it should be done. And then the pronunciation is U Doc being you and the doctor with no middleman. So it's got a bunch of layers. It's overly complicated, but there it is. So

Dr. Alex Schloe: I love it, man. That is awesome. Yeah, folks listening, check out you doc there in the Richmond, Virginia area. Dr. Kenneth Qiu. It's been awesome having you on the podcast, man. It's so good to catch up. Hopefully it's not multiple years in between going forward, so I'll have to have you back on the show as things continue to grow and expand.

But thanks for taking the time to chat on the podcast tonight.

Dr. Kenneth Qiu: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. It's been great to catch up.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Awesome. And with that, it's been Dr. Kenneth Q and Dr. Alex Low with another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast signing off.

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