Why There Will Never Be a DPC Reality Show
I once thought a Direct Primary Care reality TV show would be cool. The name would be something like Run DPC or whatever. My idea would be to go around the country and highlight the new Direct Primary Care offices that were opening. As we all know, when you see one DPC practice, then you’ve seen one DPC practice. They are all different. As I am old, retired, and have been around the DPC block for a decade or more, I thought I might even be able to give some advice to these docs starting up. But then I remembered my past and why I had this idea, and realized this would fail.
The picture above is from this NY Times article written about me in 2010. It is behind a paywall, but here is the short PDF of it if interested. It is well-written and discusses the crazy and weird things I have done in my life that most of you don’t know about. Trust me, it’s a fun read.
For a couple of years, these two guys from LA tried to make a medical show involving me. They really tried. They thought my sense of humor and my experience with people/patients would make for great viewing. Hell, the NY TIMES even wrote about it! That’s not easy to get a NYT writer to come to Maine in the middle of winter to follow me around in rural areas during a snowstorm, but they did it. And yet, we couldn’t get a deal done for TV. Alas, I was meant for other things, and it was probably for the best.
You see, what people don’t know is how contrived these reality shows really are. They want things set up for controversy. They want drama, and if it is not there, then they want you to create it. The guys who were working with me to get the show done were on my side and didn’t want fake stuff like this. I think this was our downfall.
Circling back to Direct Primary Care, I think it would not work for reality television because almost all DPC doctors are smiling and content. Sure, there would be some stress for them trying to make it financially, but patients would be happy, the staff would be happy, and the doctor would be happy. That is not what TV producers want. They want controversy. DPC has very little controversy (except for the VC/PE stuff we post about here).
And maybe this is all a good thing.
There is nothing contrived about good care given to patients in an environment that is welcoming and where everyone is actually happy.
That is Direct Primary Care.
(If you are interested in the Placebo Journal, you can buy each magazine on eBay from some dude – not me – for $50 a piece, which is ridiculous. I was able, however, to make two full-color, hard-cover books that include the best stuff. They are expensive, but that was the lowest Amazon would allow me to charge. Volume One is here and Volume Two is here. Vance Lassey, who many of you know, used to write for me.)
