24 min
Laura Purdy, MD, MBA, Veteran - How Telehealth can help fix U.S. Healthcare Healthcare Reimagined
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- Medicine
Laura Purdy was an active-duty Physician prior to entering the civilian sector. She joined the military because of her sense of patriotism, and because she wanted to focus on patient-care. When she joined in 2005, the Army allowed physicians to just be physicians, and focus on their medical skills before all else. As that culture shifted, Laura decided to leave when her contract ended and explore new opportunities.
Towards the end of her time in the service, Laura began exploring the telemedicine space, and has worked with/for dozens of companies across the industry. We discussed Laura’s belief that 20 years from now, virtual care will be commonplace in every household. Her hope is to help enable that success at the policy and company level. We touched on how allowing clinicians (as is the case in the military) to practice to a higher scope of licensure would solve many of the problems of access that we face in the U.S. today. When I asked why that doesn’t happen, I got an interesting answer: Laura believes that healthcare is too arrogant. The archaic notion that the only people capable of delivering healthcare safely and well is doctors is, in Laura’s mind, dead wrong.
“As an industry, we need to check our egos at the door - all clinicians have the same goal, which is to work on solutions and to do it safely and responsibly as a team.”
Laura believes that there are many situations where clinicians don’t really need to see a patient in person, just as you don’t need to see a bank teller every time you need to do a bank transaction.
We discussed that over the last few years, regulators have realized that tele-health is not going away and that there is a need to embrace technology and the development of new ways to create doctor/patient relationships.
In the last part of our conversation, we discussed Open loop, where Laura serves as the Chief Medical Officer. Open Loop is a fully staffed telemedicine operation that encompasses staffing, execution, revenue management and reimbursement. In short, a total telehealth medical experience.
When I asked Laura what she would talk about if she had 60 seconds with President Biden, she did something unexpected. She told me that Instead of just telling him, she would ask him to tell her what he wants to improve in our healthcare system, and that she could then tell him how tele-health will help achieve his goals and initiatives.
In dozens of interviews, nobody ever answered that question by suggesting that they would ask a question, instead of just prescribe a cure. The humility to lead with a question is something that we need more of - check out this episode and learn more about Dr. Purdy. You can connect with Dr. Purdy on Twitter or Linkedin.
Laura Purdy was an active-duty Physician prior to entering the civilian sector. She joined the military because of her sense of patriotism, and because she wanted to focus on patient-care. When she joined in 2005, the Army allowed physicians to just be physicians, and focus on their medical skills before all else. As that culture shifted, Laura decided to leave when her contract ended and explore new opportunities.
Towards the end of her time in the service, Laura began exploring the telemedicine space, and has worked with/for dozens of companies across the industry. We discussed Laura’s belief that 20 years from now, virtual care will be commonplace in every household. Her hope is to help enable that success at the policy and company level. We touched on how allowing clinicians (as is the case in the military) to practice to a higher scope of licensure would solve many of the problems of access that we face in the U.S. today. When I asked why that doesn’t happen, I got an interesting answer: Laura believes that healthcare is too arrogant. The archaic notion that the only people capable of delivering healthcare safely and well is doctors is, in Laura’s mind, dead wrong.
“As an industry, we need to check our egos at the door - all clinicians have the same goal, which is to work on solutions and to do it safely and responsibly as a team.”
Laura believes that there are many situations where clinicians don’t really need to see a patient in person, just as you don’t need to see a bank teller every time you need to do a bank transaction.
We discussed that over the last few years, regulators have realized that tele-health is not going away and that there is a need to embrace technology and the development of new ways to create doctor/patient relationships.
In the last part of our conversation, we discussed Open loop, where Laura serves as the Chief Medical Officer. Open Loop is a fully staffed telemedicine operation that encompasses staffing, execution, revenue management and reimbursement. In short, a total telehealth medical experience.
When I asked Laura what she would talk about if she had 60 seconds with President Biden, she did something unexpected. She told me that Instead of just telling him, she would ask him to tell her what he wants to improve in our healthcare system, and that she could then tell him how tele-health will help achieve his goals and initiatives.
In dozens of interviews, nobody ever answered that question by suggesting that they would ask a question, instead of just prescribe a cure. The humility to lead with a question is something that we need more of - check out this episode and learn more about Dr. Purdy. You can connect with Dr. Purdy on Twitter or Linkedin.
24 min