Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Ep. 9 Blending Tradition and Innovation: Dr. Mitch Moreau’s Journey to Integrative Healthcare in Virginia Beach
Dr. Michel Moreau, a seasoned practitioner of osteopathic, functional, and naturopathic medicine, shares the captivating journey that brought him from France to Virginia Beach. Discover how he strategically chose the ideal location for his new integrative medicine practice using cutting-edge AI technology, ensuring its success in a vibrant community. Tune in to hear about his unique approach to holistic healthcare, where traditional methods seamlessly blend with alternative practices to cater to patients of all ages. His deep-rooted passion for osteopathic medicine shines through as he elaborates on its hands-on benefits, especially for those who prefer non-pharmacological interventions.
Beyond the clinic walls, Dr. Moreau finds joy and rejuvenation in Virginia Beach's natural beauty, embracing outdoor activities like kayaking and biking. With the picturesque coast as his backdrop, he balances his professional dedication with personal leisure pursuits. This episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, Virginia Beach, promises a rich exploration of how personal passion and professional expertise come together in a thriving medical practice, contributing to a healthier, happier community. Join Denise Taylor and Dr. Moreau for an inspiring conversation that reveals the heart and soul of integrative medicine right in the heart of Virginia Beach.
Integrative Medicine
Dr. Michel Moreau
1004 First Colonial Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
intergrativemedicinevb.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Denise Taylor.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to Good Neighbors Podcast, Virginia Beach. This is Denise Taylor. I am here today with Dr Michel Moreau from Integrative Medicine here in Virginia Beach. Welcome, Dr Moreau, to the show.
Speaker 3:Good morning Denise. How are you?
Speaker 2:Good morning, I'm good. Thank you so much for being here. Tell us a little bit about your local business here in Virginia Beach.
Speaker 3:Right. So this is a new office. We've been here for about a couple of months, open for a month, and this is integrative medicine, combining general practice or family medicine with osteopathic medicine and also functional and naturopathic medicine. So that's a lot of medicine. It's about three specialties in one.
Speaker 2:Tell me a little bit about your background. I know you just moved here. Tell us a little bit about why you chose Virginia Beach. I think that's such an interesting story.
Speaker 3:Right, so I'm originally from France and I trained as an osteopath in England, then I retrained as a medical doctor between England and the US and then I also trained as a naturopathic physician and I was for many years I was in Vermont. Then we moved to Northern Virginia, always in integrative medicine, and we decided to explore the south of the state and we fell in love with Virginia Beach and we decided to open up a practice Very simple.
Speaker 2:When I first met with you, you said something about using some new technology to actually pick the space that you're actually located in. Can you share a little more about that?
Speaker 3:The space itself. Oh, we explored different areas of Virginia Beach and we had to do a business plan, so we looked at the socioeconomic aspects of Virginia Beach and First Colonial Road, specifically by the hospital.
Speaker 2:I love that, and you used actually some AI to help with some of that not being part of the area that's right.
Speaker 3:Like many other people, we try to use AI to gain time and also to get more specifics, more details. It usually takes so long to put a proper business plan together. Ai was very useful in the matter, very useful.
Speaker 2:We're glad that you're here. Tell us why osteopathy is so important to you.
Speaker 3:Right. So, as I said, I trained in England, so it's a bit different from the US. It's a very hands-on technique, very applied and it's a very nice way to have a great contact with a patient. For those who cannot take medications, it's perfect. For those who have take medications, it's perfect for those who have chronic pain issues. It's also very important to be able to deliver therapy in a gentle fashion, so there are very little contraindications with with properly applied osteopathic technique. It can go from kids to pregnant women to elderly, so it's a very easy way to treat people. And, I said, it can be combined with other modalities of treatment, such as injection or medications, depending. But osteopathic medicine is an old-fashioned way to treat people, so people love it usually.
Speaker 2:I think we're seeing a trend in coming back to those ways of treating people.
Speaker 3:Definitely.
Speaker 2:What do you do outside of your business? I know you're passionate about what you do and treating patients. What do you like to do outside of the business for fun?
Speaker 3:For fun, so we have limited amount of time at this right now. Kayaking is great, biking is great, walking hiking there's so much to do in Virginia Beach as well. Just walking by the beach is wonderful. Weather is quite nice compared to the Northeast, so there are very just some limitations to all the things you can do here, so there's plenty to do outside.
Speaker 3:I feel very lucky that we are in business owners as they're building their business is key, because you want to implant your business in a location that is going to be conducive to you know doing good business. People have to be able to reach you, depending on what you do. You need a good, good economic environment, so the logistics is very important. You need a good parking space. You need good roads to access your practice. Whatever you do and I mean we're lucky we have the hospital next door. It's not by chance. It was a decision in our case, just to make sure for safety If something happens, we have the hospital next door. For other businesses, I would say definitely contact your bank, contact the SBA. They have plenty of resources allocated to entrepreneurs. It's very, very important to sit down and do the job when it comes to the business plan, absolutely.
Speaker 2:What do you think would be one misconception about your particular sort of practice?
Speaker 3:So I think the, especially in this, in this area, medical practice is very conventional overall, pretty much dictated by the medical insurance business, insurance business, what we do in integrative medicine, especially when this is a boutique cash practice we don't take insurance, so we have more freedom of movement. We can do a little more than conventional practitioners. So I think people may have a little misconception when it comes to the services we may be able to deliver. We have more time for our patients compared to conventional medicine and we have more tools to treat people. So there again you have concierge practice, boutique practice like our office, but we have more to give to patients.
Speaker 2:I think you hear that a lot patients and people who are frustrated with that kind of feeling that they're kind of being pushed through the system without being heard and we know that that is really based on the pressure from the physician to see enough patients in a daytime. And I think that's what your practice is going to be able to offer is more of that one-on-one experience, really getting to listen to the patient and do you want to share a little bit more about?
Speaker 3:you know, yes, I I mean compared to the conventional system. I mean usually, if you're in, you work for the hospital or for a large practice, you limit yourself to maybe 15 minutes max per patient. You discuss one problem when people do come with more than one problem. So it's uh, it's very difficult to for a patient to just limit the, the, the complaint, to a simple headache when there is neck pain associated to it. So, uh, this is what we we able to offer more time, more dedication to the uh, to the patient, care and, as I said, more uh, more different modalities of treatment that they don't have access to usually the conventional field.
Speaker 2:I love looking at the comprehensive, the view of the human you know, how it's all working together, rather than one complaint, um, because it could be so many other things that are really attributing to whatever.
Speaker 3:Whatever is happening, that's right, and also one thing to mention is the physical examination is very important. This is very old-fashioned and yet this is this is crucial for crucial. To do a good treatment, good diagnosis and treatment, you need to be able to examine your patient properly. So you need time and there again, this is hands-on. You need to listen to the heart, you need to look at the joints, look at the skin.
Speaker 2:All this takes time and you may not get this in a conventional system that much and you may not get this in a conventional system that much, so we're talking about 15 minutes in a traditional office. Can you share what a patient would expect as if they come into your office and have their first exam Typically? What does you know the time and what kind of procedures happen in that first visit?
Speaker 3:Right, so the first appointment is at least an hour. This is the time I need to question the patients and then to do a proper physical and then I always try to start the treatment. Especially if this is physical treatment or someone who is in pain, I'm always going to try something to alleviate the pain. So this this takes uh 60 to 90 minutes for the first session and then, depending, the following sessions are usually around 30 minutes, depending on what, what is needed, we take the time um.
Speaker 3:You know we're talking pretty broad, but typically, who is coming to see you? Well, it's a very wide variety of patients. It's not just the people you think would have enough income to pay service cash. It's absolutely everyone. When people cannot find the answer to their questions out there, they will come and see you. They will try because they're desperate for solutions. So it's absolutely everyone. You would be surprised, actually. Who comes to the practice, which is nice, which is nice, and we try to keep the fees moderate enough so people can have access to us you know, and they say that, that if you don't have your health, you don't have anything.
Speaker 2:So it's that's right, that's right you can't really put a price tag on uh. I worked with a scientist at eastern virginia medical school and she's she would always every time she presented. She would always every time she presented, and I was always in a lot of her presentations with donors she would talk about Steve Jobs. All the money in the world did not save him from pancreatic health.
Speaker 2:When we're trying to get answers. It's nice to have people like you in a community that we can come and and hopefully get some of those answers, when in the regular health system that we have right now it's sometimes very difficult to kind of look at the entire approach and get some of those answers right. How can our listeners learn more.
Speaker 3:It's pretty, pretty easy and convenient. You can go online, of course, and look at integrativemedicinevbcom. You can come to 1004 First Colonial Road. There will be someone at the practice. So I do a lot of the virtual consults as well. So sometimes I'm not available to be at the door, but I mean, this is pretty easy to get us and there are brochures outside the practice for people to know a little more about us.
Speaker 2:And what are your typical hours at the practice?
Speaker 3:So I would say typically 9 to 5. We're going to open on Saturday 8 to 2, like I used to before. This is flexible.
Speaker 2:At the moment Some people have to come a little late in the evening, okay, so you're flexible to that and getting the practice up and running here in Virginia Beach, that's right, we are so excited to have you here. Have your expertise here in our community.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:And we appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Denise.
Speaker 2:Thank you Again. It is integrativemedicinevb. com, as in virginiabeachcom. Thank you so much, dr Moreau
Speaker 3:Thank you, Denise.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpvirginiabeach. com. That's gnpvirginiabeach. com, no-transcript.