After two years in residency, Dr. Lisa and I were both voted into the leadership position by our peers and faculty at Swedish called Chief Resident. In the life cycle of a medical path there are many stages: college, MCAT (big test), med school with two years of course work and two years of clinical work. (this is the stage that the students you encounter at our office are in).
Then there is this computerized match program that decides your “entire life”, or where you will spend your residency years, the most intensive part of your training. That is where Dr. Lisa and I fatefully met. For family medicine doctors this part is three years and the first year is called your internship (queue memories of Grey’s Anatomy season one).
The next transition seems like the “end” but it is really the beginning. Going into practice is perhaps the biggest leap you take as a medical professional. No longer within the safety of your training cocoon, now you are a big doctor on your own and your wings are not yet developed. Dr. Lisa and I decided to take that last leap together when we opened Whole Family Health at Belmar for HealthONE right after we graduated.
When HealthONE decided to close our practice, Dr. Lisa was left with a decision: keep going on the medical treadmill to the next job or take the break she hadn’t had since….summer vacation in college? She was just getting married, without any kids or pets, and she decided it was time. Dr. Lisa started by studying medical acupuncture the summer before her big trip. Then, in January of 2017 she went to China for three months learning more about acupuncture by practicing it. This started the sabbatical year that brought Dr. Lisa and her husband around the globe. They included a bike ride from Lisbon to Budapest, with a culinary exploration in each town. By the end, they had made a small footprint on nearly every continent.
After she spent a few months working in Oregon last fall, Dr. Lisa and I got together and started talking about working together again. I am elated to say that once she got back, we made it happen.
This week, Dr. Lisa Nguyen will start seeing patients at Direct Osteopathic Primary Care. She will expand our clinic availability by adding appointment time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Dr. Lisa will add to our services with acupuncture treatments for $55 for members and $70 for non members. In fact, for your first three treatments as a member you get $10 off per treatment so try it! If you stay tuned, you’ll notice other exciting membership perks we have in the works. Read a special message from Dr. Lisa here.
I am honored and blessed that my best friend, and my favorite medical professional, is joining us. I know you will find the compassion, easy going demeanor, and intelligence of Dr. Lisa to be a perfect fit for DOPC. Now is the time to send a friend or a family member to join us! In fact, at our last practice that is exactly what I did when I sent my parents to Dr. Lisa! We can now double our capacity and continue to make Direct Osteopathic the place where doctors get to be doctors (instead of corporate automatons) and patients get good care (the old fashioned way, by partnering with a provider they trust).
Refer a friend and get $20 off your next invoice with us.
Cheers to growth and expansion this Spring,
Dr. Brie
