Heal Thy Practice: “It does exactly what is says on the tin”

In 2009, when I first heard about the Heal Thy Practice conference, I was annoyed. Irrational, I know, but helping physicians look at running their practices more effectively was my passion, and someone else had beaten us to the punch.

Heal Thy Practice

When I met the owners and operators of Holistic Primary Care Magazine, who put on the conference, earlier this year at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York, I realized that my annoyance was even more irrational than I had first thought. My first impression of Erik Goldman and Meg Sinclair were that of people on a congruent mission to us at Revive, and that impression has not faded.

Rachel and I have spent this Summer getting to know them, and when they asked us to speak at this year’s event, we leaped at the opportunity. They seem to know everyone that is anyone in holistic medicine, and it has been such a pleasure to be part of this magnificent event.

More than any other conference we have ever attended (or put on ourselves) this conference had an air of holism that permeated the whole conference and we have never felt anywhere else. For example, we know how only too well how hard it is to get hotels to cater for the needs of the notoriously picky holistically minded practitioners. The food at this conference was a delight. Fresh fish, provided by Vital Choice, lots of greens and gluten free goodies made it easy for everyone to practice what they preach, a truly refreshing change.

The quality of the presentations was also exceptional. In what other profession would you see participants sharing their innovations so openly and lovingly? Dr. Pamela Wible, a primary care physician from Eugene, OR, kicked off the seminar by sharing her journey from machine cog to community driven primary care provider. It was a great story, and will make an even better film… watch this space!

There were several other incredible talks for the doctors, but one new innovation for this conference was a ‘vendor-track’, a series of sessions for the 20 or so vendors there for the weekend. Between myself, Steve Wickham and Erik Goldman, company reps were treated to up to date data on the industry (e.g. 79% of primary care physicians recommend supplements, but only 13% stock them in their offices) but also best practices for selling to doctors, not only at the conference, but once they get back to HQ. This was an exceptional experience, and seems like a best practice that should be replicated.

The rest of the conference was a mix of clinical and systemic information to help the modern day primary care doctor become more savvy about the emerging trends in practice development. Great speakers like JJ Virgin, Dr. Steve Masley and Dr. Kent Holtorf shared significant insight to adding new revenue streams and services while reducing overhead, all with the central goal of taking patient care to the next level.

My talk on Saturday afternoon was delivered to a full house of doctors, vendors and even a couple of local friends. We first looked at the potential that physician driven social media has in the proliferation of holistic concepts to the general public, followed by a step by step guide to the best practices in digital marketing. If the success of my talk could be judged by the number of people that stayed after to ask questions, I would venture it was the most popular talk of the weekend.

The event finished on Sunday with a spectacular brunch and an innovative session with Dr. Jim Gordon, a leader in the field of mind-body medicine. His session was synonymous with the name of his new book ‘Unstuck’ where he looked at strategies to help practitioners get ‘unstuck’ and overcome blocks in getting to their ideal practice.

We look forward to participating in future events with Holistic Primary Care, it was a weekend to remember and the start of something that could have a significant impact on American Healthcare, and as a result, the world.