Is Our Practice Right For You?
Your health. Your choice. It’s important that you understand how our consultative practice works before you request an appointment. From what to expect before, during, and after your visit, to frequently asked questions, we trust you’ll find the answers, hope, and confidence you need to make an informed decision regarding your health.
What we expect from you
Take Charge of Your Health
It’s all in our name. The patients who experience the best results have one thing in common: They’re motivated. We believe that true healing and optimal wellness require a collaborative partnership between our clinicians and our patients. We’re committed to providing you with the knowledge, support, and personalized recommendations you need to thrive. However, we aren’t miracle workers and you won’t get better simply by becoming our patient. Our role is to provide you with the knowledge and support to make positive changes, but the ultimate decisions rest with you.
Take Action on Our Advice
Our team invests significant time and expertise in crafting personalized care plans tailored to your unique needs. We provide you with answers, recommendations, and evidence-based strategies for improved health. However, it is up to you to take action. The patients who see the biggest changes take steps to implement the advice we provide, whether it's adopting healthy lifestyle practices, following prescribed treatment protocols, or making necessary adjustments to support their well-being.
Embrace Recommended Tests
Comprehensive testing is a fundamental aspect of our approach to healthcare. We rely on detailed insights gained from various tests to understand your individual health profile and identify underlying causes of your concerns. We encourage you to embrace and follow through with the tests we recommend, even if you’ve had them or similar tests done before elsewhere.
Coordinate Your Own Care
While we strive to provide whole-person care, it is essential to recognize that we cannot coordinate all aspects of your healthcare. We expect our patients to take the lead in coordinating their care by scheduling appointments, following up on referrals, and sharing relevant medical information across their healthcare network. By actively engaging in this coordination, you ensure that all providers involved have the necessary information to deliver integrated and well-informed care.
Advocate for Yourself
We encourage our patients to be proactive in their healthcare interactions, including advocating for themselves to other physicians. Our approach can sometimes differ from what other doctors may recommend, which is why so many patients seek us out to begin with. We know that our methods may be seen as unconventional by some in the medical community. Rather than engaging in extensive communication with other physicians who may hold different perspectives, we choose to stay dedicated to our patients and their specific needs. Our primary goal is to provide the highest level of care and support to our patients, empowering them to make informed decisions about their health.
While we respect the opinions of other specialists, we believe that each patient's journey is unique, and what works for one person may not work for another. We encourage our patients to trust their own experiences and the progress they make under our care, without feeling the need to convince their other doctors of our methods. Instead, we focus on building a strong and trusting relationship with our patients, ensuring they have the resources, knowledge, and support they need to pursue their own wellness goals.
What to expect from us...
Before
your first appointment
Once you’ve submitted your new patient questionnaire, we’ll be in touch by email to let you know the clinician we've matched you with whose expertise best fits your specific needs. When your name is reached on that clinician's waitlist, we'll call to schedule your New Patient Consultation. If you don't answer when we call, we'll email you a link to set up a brief call to answer any questions you may have and get you scheduled.
Helping you heal means understanding your lifestyle and medical history in great detail. That’s why, after you’re scheduled, we’ll ask you to complete thorough patient intake forms in your patient portal before your initial appointment.
This intake information is more than paperwork. It’s your story and our team’s window into your medical history. It’s also the first step toward getting to the root of your illness and helping you heal.
We recommend that you set aside 45-60 minutes to complete this and have the following information handy:
- History of your symptoms and conditions
- List of medications and supplements you are on (including dosage)
- Recent lab reports
Please understand that each of our clinicians only see a maximum of 10 patients per day to give each of you our undivided attention and medical expertise. For this reason, your New Patient Consultation may be scheduled several weeks or months from the time you complete your new patient questionnaire, depending on which clinician you’re seeing.
We will schedule both your New Patient Consultation and first follow-up visit at the same time, to make sure you get on the schedule as quickly as possible.
DURING
your first appointment
Your New Patient Consultation will be up to 90 minutes. We welcome you to bring a support person if you think it would be helpful, whether it’s your partner, spouse, parent, friend, or relative.
It may also be helpful to bring a notebook so you can take notes or jot down specific things you want to make sure you tell your clinician. At the end of your appointment, your clinician will advise you on which lab tests you’ll need to get done. This first session is all about getting to know you and beginning the data collection process. Because we are a data-driven practice, we will not typically prescribe any sort of treatment plans, medications, or supplements until we have analyzed your test results.
Advanced
Testing
At the end of your New Patient Consultation, your clinician will recommend which tests you should get based on your symptoms, genetic history, environment, lifestyle, and of course, your medical history. Even if you’ve had many of these tests performed previously, we strongly recommend that you don’t skip any.
It’s important to note that we will not do all of these tests at one time; instead we take a phased approach to properly analyze each set of tests. In a nutshell, we’ll eventually test all your bodily fluids.
We have a unique approach to ordering labs and in order to get the complete picture, we’ll need to see everything. Trust that your clinician has ordered each test for a reason.
Testing is not included in your consultation fees, but may be able to be billed through your insurance. Lab testing is available onsite via our lab partner, or we’d be happy to recommend diagnostic test facilities.
Please Note:
If you choose to use our on-site lab partner, your testing appointment will likely be scheduled on a different day than your new patient appointment, depending on what kind of tests you need.
During your follow-up visit, we will help you understand your test results and how they may correlate with your symptoms. You’ll also get a clearer picture of where you should be for optimal health, versus where you currently are. At that time, another round of testing may be ordered.
Personalized
Care Plan
Genetics. Environment. Lifestyle. Together with your health history, lab, imaging, and advanced testing results, plus the latest research in medicine, these are the factors that will drive the development of your personalized care plan.
Treating your chronic conditions means treating your body as well as you can. That goes beyond simply “eating healthy” and exercising. In order to help you heal, we have to uncover what “eating healthy” and “exercising” means for you and your body.
After your first follow-up visit, we will begin creating your custom care plan. You may get your plan quickly or it may take a few days. This takes time, because we put a great deal of data analysis, the newest research, and energy into every single recommendation we make.
Your detailed plan may include guidelines, supplements, medications, nutritional guidance, and more. We are scientists at heart, so while every recommendation we make is backed by science, a lot of your treatment plan is all about experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t.
Ongoing
Monitoring
We’ll recommend follow-up testing and visits depending on your unique situation and your individual progress. Depending on your condition and symptoms, we recommend quarterly, twice a year, or more frequent visits. Many of our patients start reporting improvement or resolution of symptoms in 3 to 6 months. We adjust your care plan based on data, emerging research, and advances in technology to make sure you're always receiving the best, most updated care possible.