Dr. Paul Thomas Speaks at the AAFP DPC Summit 2020

In July, Dr. Paul Thomas spoke at the DPC Summit 2020. The topic? Set: How to Lease or Build Out the Perfect Space for Your Direct Primary Care Practice - it took place from 11:30am - 12:15pm Central on July 18, 2020.

A lot of doctors struggle with lease negotiation, estimating the cost of a build out, hiring general contractors, and overall working with real estate. That’s why I felt so strongly about putting together this material on how to lease or build out a new space for your direct primary care practice.

Dr. Paul Thomas speaks at the DPC Summit 2020 about building out the practice of your dreams.

If you missed the presentation, I’ve recorded it as a course on this website. You can find it here!

Have you always wanted to build out that big, beautiful dream practice? The one that's in your head, that would be perfect for you, your patients, and the community? Here's how to get it done! Join me, Dr. Paul Thomas, as we explore the inspiration behind and the best practices for building out your dream office. I guarantee that by taking this course, you will save at least $10,000 on your overall costs. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• When you should Buy versus Lease an Office

• How to Select a Profitable Location

• How to Hire an Architect

• How to Work with a Real Estate Broker

• What to expect in terms of Costs

• Sample Construction Timeline for different scenarios

• The Perfect Floor Plan

• The Perfect Exam Room Layout

• How to Buy Furniture

• What type of Signage do you need?

• How to have an awesome Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

AAFP Direct Primary Care Summit 2020 Preview with Dr. Paul Thomas

AAFP DPC Summit 2020

The AAFP DPC Summit is going virtual - I know it’s not ideal, but we’ll make the most of it. I’m very excited to be participating this year and I’ll be giving two different talks. The first will be a panel on Friday night with the students and residents, discussing how we started our practice straight out of residency. The second will be a presentation on Saturday at 11:30 am on how to build out your own beautiful office space for your practice - how to leverage the funds, how to work with an architect, how to negotiate a lease, and how to build a beautiful space for your patients and your community. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

-Dr. Paul Thomas

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

AAFP Direct Primary Care Summit 2020 is Going Virtual!

AAFP DPC Summit 2020 is Going Virtual

Due to Covid 19, the AAFP DPC Summit is going virtual. There are pros and cons to this arrangement, but there will be much to learn from the sessions and presenters. This year, I have the honor of presenting twice during the Summit. I’ll be giving a talk on building out a larger office for your DPC practice and I’ll be a part of the DPC Summit Student and Resident Track

DPC Summit Student and Resident Track

The DPC Summit will have a student and resident track as a part of the programming, and this year the AAFP is taking the unprecedented step of making the content of this student and resident track FREE for all medical students and medical residents.

This is very exciting as medical students and residents will be able to learn a ton about the DPC model for free during the year's premiere direct primary care conference. You can sign up for the full DPC Summit for $50 if you’re a medical student or medical resident, on the AAFP DPC Summit website, here.

If you want to get updates from Dr. Kenneth Qiu about the Student and Resident Track, and get FREE access to the DPC Summit 2020 Student and Resident Track, please fill out this form.

Interview with Dr. Kenneth Qiu

Dr. Kenneth Qiu and I had a moment to sit down and talk about the upcoming Student and Resident track for the AAFP DPC Summit 2020. It’s going to start at 5:30 pm Central Time on Friday July 17th and it should go until about 7:30 pm. More deets in this vid:

Is it possible to start a dpc practice straight out of residency

YES! I started my DPC practice straight out of residency and it’s the best decision I’ve made in my medical career. I did it with only a little bit of money, but a ton of grit and persistence. Almost four years later, I’ve hired two doctors to help me with the demand and I’ve created a second location for our thriving business and brand. Learn more at Plum Health DPC’s website, here.

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Which is the Best Direct Primary Care Conference?

Why should you attend a Direct Primary Care Conference?

If you are looking to start and grow a direct primary care practice, you should definitely attend one or all of the major direct primary care conferences held in various locations across the US. These will be especially important for in-person networking and meeting other courageous physicians who are starting and growing their direct primary care practices. It will also show you what’s possible for you, your practice, and your future.

All of these conferences are excellent, and they each have their strengths and weaknesses. In general, these conferences are great places to learn about the practice of direct primary care and to connect with thought leaders and colleagues. There’s a distinct ethos of the DPC movement, and you can immerse yourself in this environment and learn some of those intangibles that are hard to pick up through other mediums.

You can find doctors who are practicing in your community and start building some mentoring relationships that can be valuable over the long term. You can also find a cohort of DPC docs who are at a similar stage in their journey. Take the time to connect with these doctors as well, as you will likely face similar challenges in your individual practices.

What are the three major Direct Primary Care Conferences?

The three major direct primary care conferences are the AAFP DPC Summit, the Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation DPC Nuts and Bolts Conference, and the Hint Summit. In short, you can benefit from all three conferences. It might come down to cost and geography for you, but there’s value with each conference. 

Here’s what’s on tap for 2020:

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) DPC Summit

The AAFP DPC Summit in June or July of each year caters to independent direct primary care physicians, and DPC doctors set the agenda. There are typically three days of educational sessions with a broad range of topics. The location bounces around the country and has been in Chicago (2019), Indianapolis (2018), Washington D.C. (2017), and Kansas City (2016). The 2020 conference will return to Kansas City from July 17th to 19th.

The focus is on the independent Family Medicine DPC practice, but there’s also information for larger DPC practices as well as more corporate DPC structures. The content and speaker selection is driven by a group of ten or so practicing DPC doctors and a few medical students and residents. There are scholarships available for medical students and residents, and the application can be found on the AAFP website. Further, Internists, Pediatricians, and Medicine-Pediatric doctors have also been known to attend.

In 2017 I was a panelist at the AAFP DPC Summit on starting a direct primary care practice, in 2018 I was a main-stage speaker and delivered “DPC Hustles Harder”, and in 2019 I was a main-stage speaker discussing how to build your personal brand to grow your direct primary care practice.

Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health DPC delivering his “DPC Hustles Harder” Presentation at the AAFP DPC Summit on building a strong business brand and a strong personal brand to grow your Direct Primary Care practice.

The Docs 4 Patient Care DPC Nuts and Bolts Conference

The DPC Nuts and Bolts Conference presented by the Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation is in Orlando each November, usually during the first or second full weekend in November. Dr. Lee S Gross organizes the Nuts and Bolts Conference, and he is a relentless advocate for the DPC model and movement. After the 2018 Nuts and Bolts conference, he posted this on his Facebook page:

I spent this weekend with some of the most inspirational and brave physicians I have ever met. It is time for physician leaders to step up and take back control of health care on behalf of our profession, our patients, and our nation. It is time for us to call out those that put themselves in between the doctor and patient.

I’ve saved this specific quote from Dr. Gross because it’s so damn inspiring – I’ve read this aloud at the AAFP DPC Summit 2019 and got chills as I said it on stage in front of 300 or more doctors.

Within this quote is a great mission statement: I believe that it’s time to take back health care for our profession, our patients, and our nation. Inspiration from Dr. Gross and other attendees comes standard at the Nuts and Bolts Conference.

The DPC Nuts and Bolts Conference is valuable in that there’s excellent DPC content and a strong showing of practicing and prospective DPC docs. The only point of contention with this conference is that there are some political overtones and some speakers with a political agenda.

Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health DPC at the podium during the Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation Nuts and Bolts Conference, sharing about passion, purpose, authenticity and caring. — with Ellen McKnight, Chad Savage, Josh Umbehr, and Lee S. Gross at Rosen Hotels & Resorts Orlando.

The Hint Summit

The Hint Health Summit is usually held in San Francisco each year, but in 2020, it’s moving to Denver. Hint Health sponsors this conference, and they describe themselves as “the direct primary care solutions company that partners with visionary provider organizations to build successful DPC programs.”

Paul Thomas, MD of Plum Health DPC at the Hint Summit 2018 - the conference topic was Breaking the Status Quo in health care and ZDoggMD was the keynote speaker!

I attended the Hint Health Summit in 2018, and I enjoyed it immensely. I got to rub elbows with speakers like Zubin Damania aka ZDoggMD, Garrison Bliss, Clint Flanagan, and Zak Holdsworth. For the Hint Summit, Hint Health has a bigger budget and can afford big name speakers like ZDogg MD and Marty Makary et al. But, they are trying to sell you a product, the Hint billing platform.

The one criticism that I have is that the content is tailored for larger DPC groups and more corporate DPC structures. Because of this, the content was not as valuable for an independent DPC practice like mine relative to the content presented by the AAFP and the Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation. However, I have heard that there may be some changes to the 2020 Hint Health Summit content and format.

This is a good opportunity to introduce this concept: it matters who you spend time with, and by spending time with successful and inspiring people, you can raise your frequency and increase your chances for success. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

By immersing yourself in these conferences with exceptional DPC docs, you will pick up on the pearls, the tips, and the idiosyncrasies that make these doctors successful. Your choice to attend these conferences will depend on costs, distance traveled, and proposed content.

All three conferences are great for networking. They will raise your frequency and show you what’s possible for you and your practice in DPC and beyond. 

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE Right Now?

If you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC