Business Talk
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Business Talk
Redefining the Doctor-Patient Relationship in a Digital Age
What if you could revolutionize your healthcare experience and break free from the constraints of insurance companies? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Khan, a seasoned nephrologist who has embarked on an innovative journey with HealthWise Concierge. Dr. Khan takes us through his transition from a traditional medical practice to a pioneering membership-based service, highlighting how this model enhances the physician-patient relationship. Drawing from his extensive experience in internal medicine and nephrology, Dr. Khan explains how prioritizing personalized, patient-centered care can redefine the healthcare landscape.
Throughout our discussion, Dr. Khan shares valuable insights into the transformative role of technology in medicine, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Discover how virtual interactions and instant access to medical information are empowering patients like never before. Dr. Khan's vision of moving away from rushed office visits to more comprehensive and compassionate care is not only refreshing but necessary in today's fast-paced digital world. Tune in to explore how concierge medicine could be the future of healthcare, offering a more meaningful and responsive patient experience.
Welcome back everyone to the podcast, where we uncover the stories behind thriving businesses and bring expert insights straight from the source. I have the pleasure to introduce our guest, dr Khan. He owns a company called HealthWise Concierge. Good morning, dr Khan. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2:Hey, good morning. Good morning, how's everybody?
Speaker 1:Doing. Awesome. Thanks for asking. Basically, go behind the scenes to provide you listeners valuable advice, from resource to learning about businesses that shape our communities and discover how to make the most of the services that you're listening to from our guests as well. As. If you enjoy this content and you want to hear more, please feel free to subscribe to the channel. So what we're going to do with that? We're going to dive in and get to know a little bit about Dr Khan's background. Take it away, Dr Khan.
Speaker 2:All right, well, sounds good. Yeah, I have been a nephrologist actually. So internal medicine, nephrology, trained physician for the past 10 years or so. Grew up in Orlando, actually Winter Park area, went to Winter Park High School, then went to UCF and med school, et cetera, so started my practice back in 2014. This is like a traditional practice that we did internal medicine and then nephrology, which is the care of kidney, high blood pressure dialysis, et cetera, which is the care of kidney, high blood pressure, dialysis, et cetera. Ten years into the practice now and now transitioning into a different venture which is the HealthWise Concierge. So this is a concierge membership based service, so it doesn't involve any hassles from the insurance companies per se and it's more of a physician patient relationship, more so than a doctor patient. You know contact, so that's, that's where we are.
Speaker 1:Well, congratulations, for you know, go venturing into a new venture right. This is your second business and it's awesome that you see an opportunity. You know when you talk about the benefits of concierge medicine, can you walk us through some of the steps as well as the benefits that are associated with that?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely yeah. So I think you know the world is changing at a very fast pace, right? I was just listening to a lecture the other day and they talked about, you know, the world transitioning from an industrial age to a digital age, right? So we have computers, facetimes, video chats, like you know, all kinds of stuff, and during COVID I realized that, you know, we were able to provide and provide the outreach, especially when it comes to healthcare, to distant parts using technology. And you know, that's when the idea for this concierge medicine kind of came around.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times, you know, in the office it's a very, unfortunately, very cut and dry kind of situation. You know, you go to the office, you wait X amount of minutes or hours sometimes, and then you get to see the physician and it's very, you know, here's your labs, this is it, and not doesn't have that personalized touch to it, unfortunately, and you know that trend of medicine is slowly fading away, unfortunately. And that's when, you know, I thought I think concierge would be a good way to, you know, get the medicine to take a different turn. As far as you know, the patient relationship is, you know, comes into play. So, concierge, would you know, allow me to spend more time with my patients, allow the patients to be like you know, be in the office and discuss all the problems that they have, instead of just like, hey, here's your labs and this is it, goodbye. You know, so's the um, that's the you know focus behind this.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's interesting and you know you mentioned the word technology, dr khan. How has? And technology is evolving like. You mentioned a few examples. What are you seeing in your, in your line of industry and your work? Work that's changing the way technology is being used.
Speaker 2:I mean as far as, like you know, people are more aware. So, as far as lab work, right, so the moment the labs are available to me, they're also available to the patients, right. So they have questions, right, hey, why is my potassium up, why is my sodium low? Or you know all those kinds of questions. So people are researching more because of, like you know, google and AIs and all of these things. So they're researching more. So they're more concerned about their health, you know.
Speaker 2:And then we're kind of, like you know, step wise, approaching different problems, right. So, high blood pressure, okay, sodiums, like you know. So it's not just like, hey, your cholesterol is high, here's your pill, I'll see you in six months, right, uh, it's more about like, hey, how can I take this pill? Maybe, yes, or what else can I do? Like you know, have a multi-different approach to treating one condition and then having that relationship to kind of guide them nutritionally and, you know, bring in some natural aspects of things as well exercise, et cetera. You know counseling. So a lot goes into just one problem per se.
Speaker 1:I like how you said that a lot goes into this one problem. So, basically, you're able to spend, if I hear you correctly, in your traditional medicine. As you go to a doctor's office, you're like you said, you're waiting. You could be waiting up to hours here. You're actually being able to work individually with your patients and give them, uh, proper uh, what is it? Uh, proper feedback proper feedback on on what's going on with them Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean, you know, with the concierge. It's like you know, our patients typically have slots, time slots in a traditional setup. You know your appointments 10, 15 minutes tops, and you know, and you know, like you mentioned, there's a lot of wait time involved here. It's up to the patient's discretion. So my patients would say, hey, I am available 12 to 1 on Saturday, hey, and we'll sit down, chat very informal, so there's no pressure of being in a doctor's office or anything like that.
Speaker 2:This could be in my clinic, this could be at home, at patients' homes, it could be on FaceTime and it doesn't have to be on that Saturday only, even if they have a question on a Wednesday night hey, my blood pressure is running high they can contact me or my support staff, which are all nurse practitioners and stuff, well-qualified, and they're able to guide them like, hey, take your bedtime medications a little bit early or you know, ok, you're having a headache, we can be so. So you know it's a very personal focused medication approach versus, like you know, hey, I got to wait for the on call doctor it's somebody else who doesn't know you and then I got to wait tomorrow morning until and you call the office and wait hours for, like you know, the office to reach back to you. So this, this kind of you know, helps the patient speed up the process and helps us take care of our patients a little bit better.
Speaker 1:So a lot of the benefits from, if I hear you correctly, a lot of the benefits are one-on-one, with the patient wait time reduced, correct? You're able to travel. They can come to you or you. They have the option, you have the option of coming to them and then they basically can set their appointments according to their schedule, of course, as well as yours but, it gives them more flexibility, correct absolutely yep, so we don't.
Speaker 2:So there's a cap on how many patients I will be accepting for this program, right, so so right now yeah, so right now the goal is only 50 patients pretty much, and I think we're already up to halfway through it. So you know we've got so many spots left. So after that it will move on to physician number two. So it's not like one person is just inundated with a bunch of patients and you know. So you got to have that balance right. The physician's got to have the you know, quality care balance and the you know, and then the patients feel more well cared for, you know, in a setup like that.
Speaker 1:So I love that and as a physician, I love that word balance man. You could have said it because I know, you know we talk all the time and you're so, you're so busy and you know, can you, let's, let's talk about you know, for those that are business owners or those that are aspiring to be in a medical profession, how do you, how do you balance business and personal?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there isn't a right or wrong way about it. I've got three little ones right, so they're nine, five and four, so very demanding ages, right, and you don't want to wait until they're 18 to spend time with them, because then they're long gone. You know they want to do their own thing, right so. So right now is the time to spend with them, and you know so. So kind of having that balance between the family, the hospital, the clinic, and it is challenging. Everybody's got their own little like.
Speaker 2:You know, formula per se. You know I start super early in the morning. I'm a morning person, so at six o'clock I'm in the hospital. I, you know, get that taking care of ASAP. Then I move on to my clinic and I try to get it out all out of the way by four o'clock, take care of my paperwork, and I got five o'clock it's like OK, it's uh, done time, family time, you know switch modes, right, so um, but you know some it's, you know it in my head it works, but some days it doesn't play out like it's supposed to right.
Speaker 1:So exactly that's basically how it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah so, but uh, we, we try and uh, you know, it's nice to have a supporting um, you know, family wife, especially, you know. So she takes care of the kids and everything, while you know I'm slaving away.
Speaker 1:Well, let's as we wrap up here, you know there are those that are listening that are wanting to be aspiring entrepreneurs or are currently business owners or physicians. Can you give any advice to them of your learning experience over the years and maybe one or two pointers that you could, they could take away with? If you know, yeah, go ahead, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the medicine has changed so much. Like you know, when I this is, um, I've been since residency. It's almost been 14 years now, so it's not very standardized. Now Many people are doing many different things, right? So it doesn't have to be like you know, when you come out of med school you're just trained to hey, you'll be working in a clinic, you'll be seeing 20 patients and it's very like repetitive.
Speaker 2:But you know, it's okay to think outside the box, even if it comes to medicine, right? So, for example, concierge, there's people, like you know, even in our practice we do hormone replacement, we do aesthetics, we do IV vitamins, we do natural medicine, right so? So that's what I wanted to do, because I didn't want my patients to be just stuck on a, on a chemical per se. Hey, here's your medication and that's it. You know I want everything together, but there's different kinds of things, like you know, people are. So I think it's okay to be innovative when it comes to medicine, right? So it's not just, you know, think outside the box, look around, there's people doing all kinds of stuff, right?
Speaker 1:So Very good answer. You know, and as we're wrapping up here, and I just kind of want to make mention of this, you know, as I was visiting your website, I know some of the things that you have include weight loss, men's health, women's health. You know IV vitamin infusion, corporate health and wellness. So all these different services you provide, you know that is under the concierge. You know the health wise concierge business, right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah. And then, you know, it kind of goes back to the just like you know, I'm a DO, which is doctor of osteopathic medicine, so you know I bring in the holistic integration to the traditional medicine, right? So when it comes to weight loss, for example, it's not just like, hey, here's your ozempic or here's your, like, you know medication and you're on your own, that's it, right. So we got to talk about side effects. We got to talk about, hey, we got to give you some vitamins, because this is gonna curb your appetite, like you know, and you're not gonna be eating, drinking, so, yeah, we can starve ourselves and lose a bunch of weight, but then you're not healthy, you know losing that weight, right. So you got to support yourself.
Speaker 2:It's a my B vitamins or fluids, and you know so. So it has to be like a global appellant. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So I mean diet counseling, like, hey, uh, some people have eating disorders, right? Hey, you just want to eat, right. So I mean you have to counsel them. So there's, there's a multitude of things, right, that that comes along. You know, with this, just one one um issue that you're trying to address, right?
Speaker 1:so let's uh, well, dr k, thank you so much. I know you're busy, you know. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your business, your practice, you know, with our listeners.
Speaker 2:And, if you can, can you provide a way for them to get a hold of you, your website, as well as a phone number? Oh, absolutely yeah. So the website's healthwiseconciergecom, and then the phone number is 407-731-0665. That is actually my cell phone number. So that, just you know, goes to show how personal we are. So you know, if you have questions, you are, you know, directly in contact with me. Basically.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again and it was such a pleasure speaking with you and hopefully we can have you back again in the near future.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, it was a joy. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome. Thank you for tuning in to First Media Consulting Podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today To nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to firstmediaconsultingcom or call. Thank you for listening.