Pictured above, Dr. Valenzuela, after practicing 15 years in the traditional medical system, considered quitting clinical practice to teach medicine full-time until she heard about Direct Primary Care at a medical conference. That changed everything for her.

I was flabbergasted. What he was explaining sounded like everything I wanted to be as a doctor.” She took a year and a half to learn more about DPC and get her ducks in a row before opening WeCARE in the fall of 2019. We hear a lot now about physician burnout, and that’s because of the demand that’s put on doctors in the corporate model, I felt like I was driving patients through an assembly line. I didn’t want to be that kind of doctor.” There’s also the moral injury of not being able to provide the kind of care for your patients that aligns with your values and philosophies.

Dr. Catherine Agricola, pictured above, couldn’t agree more. Dr. Agricola had been practicing in the Hudson Valley since 2016 before she decided to make the switch to Direct Primary Care.

The real world medical practice establishments were not fostering the personalized, community-oriented, and comprehensive approach that I valued in my practice.

The current medical system is not built with a backbone of primary care. It relies on methods and principles that serve administrative and financial interests, which are often contradictory to interests of patients and the doctors caring for them.

The Direct Primary Care model offers an new way to imagine primary care — a way that is creative, personalized, simple, accessible AND affordable.

DPC News looks forward to hearing about the progress of these two trailblazers in the Hudson Valley.